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And the title of my sermon this morning is Ezra 10 and Divorce, Ezra 10 and Divorce. When you talk about the Bible's clear teaching on divorce, when you talk about Jesus Christ's teaching on divorce, sometimes people will bring up, well, what about Ezra Chapter 10 as somehow refuting what Christ clearly taught in the New Testament? So I'm going to interpret for you and address this issue of what is going on in Ezra Chapters 9 and 10, where we have this mass divorce amongst the children of Israel. But before I do, I want to start out here in 1 Corinthians 15, because I want to teach you a concept for understanding the Bible in general, understanding the Old Testament in particular, and rightly dividing the word of truth. The Bible says that we should study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We need to be able to differentiate between different types of text in the Bible. Like, for example, there are some things in the Bible that are recording what people did, but it doesn't mean that what they did is right. And then there are other clear statements coming from God or from the narrator of the Bible, and we know those are right. For example, we have people in the Bible who had multiple wives. We have people that are committing adultery, getting drunk, committing murder. That doesn't mean that those things are right. And even if it's a good person doing those things, that doesn't mean they were right. So we need to be able to rightly divide between that which is what God is saying, what God is commanding, versus what man is doing in his human error, or what man is saying in his human error. And so we need to be able to differentiate those things. So let me start out by explaining a concept from 1 Corinthians 15. To help you understand the Old Testament in general and the book of Ezra in particular, look at 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Watch this. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. So we have the first man, Adam, and then we have the last Adam. Now who is the last Adam being referred to here? Jesus Christ is called the last Adam. Then as we go on, it says in verse 46, howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. So the second man here referring again to Jesus. We sing the song around Christmas time, second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love, mark the herald angels, sing, right? Well, the Bible says this two different ways, if you notice. And nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. Notice in verse 45, it calls him the last Adam, and then in verse 47, it calls him the second man. So in one sense, Jesus is the second Adam, as the song says, because we have the first Adam by whose actions all of mankind is doomed, and then we have the second Adam by which all of mankind has the opportunity to be saved, right? So death came by one man, and so by one man came the resurrection from the dead, right? Jesus Christ brought salvation. But in another sense, Jesus is the last Adam, which implies more than two. When we use the word last, that would imply a series. Why? Because there were different Adams, quote, unquote, if you will, throughout the Old Testament. And what I mean by that is different times where God starts over and tries something new, okay? And this happens over and over again. This is really the story of the Old Testament. First of all, you have the first Adam, Adam. God creates mankind. We know that Adam sinned, and he plunges the whole world into sin. And after about 1,656 years, you have the whole world full of violence and corruption, and the thoughts of man's hearts are only evil continually. It's very wicked. So what does God do? He wipes out the earth with a flood, and then he starts over with kind of a new Adam, which in a sense is Noah, right? Because now Noah is the father of all living. You know, we think, hey, we all go back to Adam, but really we all go back to Noah because everybody on that ark, except for Noah's wife, descended from Noah, okay? So all the descendants of the earth come from Noah and his three sons, Sham, Ham, and Japheth. So Noah represents sort of like another Adam, a reset button, if you will, where God is starting over with mankind, and there are parallels between the story of Adam and Noah. For example, what happened when Adam sinned? It resulted in the awareness that he was naked. And then, of course, what do we see with Noah? Right away we see him commit sin, and what's the result of that sin is nakedness in Genesis chapter 9. So there are a lot of parallels between the characters Adam and Noah. Now when God starts over with Noah, things are a little bit different. There's a shorter lifespan. You know, instead of people living for many hundreds of years, the lifespan is curtailed eventually to under 120 years. Now the animals are carnivorous. God institutes the death penalty. So there are some new changes that he makes. He starts over with Noah. He's made some changes, but guess what? They're still wicked. What do they do? They build the Tower of Babel, and they're trying to get to heaven. They got their one-world government, one-world religion going on. So God comes in, and he starts over with somebody new, right, Abraham. So he picks out Abram, and he says, I'm going to make of you a great nation. So this is a new phase with the patriarchs. And then, of course, that leads us into the nation of Israel. And then with Moses, we have, again, sort of a reset button because Moses is the lawgiver. You know, he's going to give the law from Mount Sinai. So the children of Israel are pretty wicked at that point. But then, hey, the law is going to straighten them out, right? So basically, Moses gives the law. He's got the Ten Commandments. Right away, they're breaking the laws. Right away, things are going bad. We have the period of the judges that God institutes with the giving of the law. And does that work out well? No. The Book of Judges is a total disaster. It's just one apostasy after another. Then God decides to try something new, right? Now we've got a king that is going to be a man after God's own heart, David, right? Everything's going to be great now. But it's not, okay? Because then you have the period of the monarchy after the judges. And how does it end up? It ends up with everybody going into captivity and everything being doomed. The northern kingdom is doomed. The southern kingdom is doomed. They go to Babylon for 70 years. And then guess what we're going to have? Another do-over. Another reset. We're going to start over, right? Okay. What books of the Bible cover that? Ezra and Nehemiah. So Ezra and Nehemiah represent the next phase, right? Post-exile Judah. They're going to come back. They've got rid of their idolatry. And they're not going to be like that anymore. And they start over. Now, let me ask you this. On the face of it, from everything that I've explained so far, you think this is going to be a success? Has it ever been a success? So why would it be any different? So when we read Ezra and Nehemiah, what we have to understand is that they are showing the failure of Israel after they come back from Babylonian exile. That's what we see in Ezra. That's what we see in Nehemiah. We see doom again. Folks, the whole point of the Old Testament is showing us the need for the New Testament. Okay. Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Okay. Jesus Christ is the true reset button. He is the one with the kingdom that will never end. He is the one who brings in everlasting righteousness. And so the whole point of the Old Testament is showing us all these different ways that man fails. Man fails. Even with great leaders. Even with great men like Abraham and David and Ezra. It inevitably leads to failure because of the sin of mankind. And it's in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, that Jesus Christ comes and takes away the sin of the world. He's the Lamb of God. And here's the thing. This phase, and I've heard some Bible teachers act like, oh, well, you know, the New Testament's going to end just like all the other, you know, in failure, in doom. And they've said that when Christ returns that, you know, pretty much all of Christianity is going to be apostate. That is nonsense because Jesus Christ said, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Okay. The church age never ends, folks. He said, praise be to him in the church world without end. Amen. The church age, the everlasting righteousness brought in by Jesus Christ is never ending. Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Okay. Now, of course, God's going to punish the wicked and punish the world, but that's not a failure of the church. That's not a failure of God's people. God's people will remain faithful unto the end. There will be great churches on this earth when Christ returns. People will be doing great exploits for God. Some people just use this as an excuse for being lukewarm, like, oh, well, we're living in the Laodicean church age, and so, you know, this is what Jesus said would happen before Christ returns that, you know, everybody's going to be apostate. Just wrong. Bologna. Speak for yourself. I'm not an apostate. This church isn't apostate. There are churches all over the world that haven't bowed the knee to Baal, and there are going to be great churches, great preaching, great Christians, and great exploits all the way up until the return of Christ. That is what the Bible teaches. Now, with that in mind, go back to Ezra. Go back to the Book of Ezra, and we're going to examine this controversial scripture in Ezra chapters 9 and 10. We're going to start in Ezra chapter 9. This is a scripture that has perplexed many people over the years, but it need not perplex once we realize the fact that we should only base what we believe on what God explicitly tells us, and if we see stories where people are doing something other than what God explicitly teaches us, we should just come away saying that those people were in error because they're human. Okay? Now, look, if you would, let's start out in Ezra chapter 9. So up to this point, we've seen the children of Israel coming back, building the temple, things are going great, and then Ezra is introduced. I'm just kind of bringing you up to speed. Ezra is introduced in chapter 7 of the book, and look, the Bible has nothing but good things to say about Ezra. I'm not up here saying that Ezra is a bad guy. Abraham was a great guy. Noah was a great guy. David was a great guy. Elijah was a great guy. But you know what? All these people are human, and none of them is perfect. Okay. Ezra was an exceptional man. He was a great man of God. There's no question about that. He was a ready scribe in the law of his God, and he set his heart to seek God's commandments and to do those things. This is not to cast shade on the person Ezra. Ezra was a great man of God, but that does not make him infallible. Okay? Now, so Ezra chapter 7 praises Ezra as a great man, and of course that is the truth. Look at chapter 9 verse 1. Now when these things were done, now we start getting into some negative things, okay? When these things were done, the princes came to me, Ezra, saying, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Parisites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and so forth. Now, I think I actually said Amorites twice there, Ammonites and Amorites. Now here's the thing about this, okay? Right away, where people start to interpret this wrong is where they start talking about well, the bloodline is being tainted. Folks, the bloodline done been tainted. I'm just talking about the bloodline's being tainted. When did God ever show a concern for having this ultra-pure bloodline, this, you know, Haran Rasa type bloodline? Folks, it isn't there. And this is not the bloodline that we're talking about. What does the Bible actually say is the problem? It says they haven't separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations. It has nothing to do with DNA, folks. It has nothing to do with blood. It has to do with the abominations and false religion of the people of the other lands. You see, all throughout the Old Testament, anyone who wanted to could join the nation of Israel regardless of DNA and regardless of bloodline. That's what the Bible says, okay? And if you would, keep your finger here, flip over to Ezekiel chapter number 47. Ezekiel chapter number 47. Anyone could join the nation of Israel. And let me give you a great example. How about Caleb, okay? Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenazite. The Kenazite. Now, not only was Caleb accepted into the nation of Israel as a full-fledged member, he was also a member of the tribe of Judah. He didn't descend from Judah. He descended from the Kenazites. He was one whose father had joined the nation of Israel. And the Bible even sits there in the book of 1 Chronicles and gives us his descendants and brags about his descendants. Who is he? And not only that, when God's sending one spy from each tribe, Caleb is sent to represent the tribe of Judah, okay? So this is not a bloodline or DNA thing. His dad was a Kenazite, okay? Look, when Jesus is picking the 12 disciples, I think we would all agree that the 12 disciples were Jews, but one of them was named Simon the Canaanite. So this man ethnically, genetically, is a Canaanite. But yet, because he had converted to worshiping the God of Israel and joined the nation of Israel, he's not considered a Gentile. He's considered part of the nation of Israel, okay? Look what the Bible says in Ezekiel chapter 47 verse 21. So shall ye divide the land unto you according to the tribes of Israel. Ezekiel 47 verse 22, and it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you, and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel. What's the Bible saying? If strangers come and sojourn among you, and they beget children among you, they're going to be to you just like the natural born Israelites. Among the children of Israel, they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel, and it shall come to pass that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God. Okay, so we see here that people can join, and there are tons of other scriptures we could go to about the fact that they get circumcised, they keep the Passover, they join the nation of Israel. Even the book of Esther in the post-exile period concurrent with Ezra and Nehemiah says that many people became Jews. Well how did that DNA swap work? They became Jews because they joined the nation of Israel. It's that simple. So this has nothing to do with the bloodline. I've heard other people say, well, you know, they had to do this divorce in Ezra chapters 9 and 10 because, you know, the bloodline of the Messiah had to be kept pure. Okay, let's go to Matthew chapter 1 and see if that's true. Let's go to Matthew chapter 1 and look at the pure bloodline of Christ. You know, we can't have these foreign wives tainting the bloodline of the Messiah. Okay, well, let's see if that holds up. Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren and Judas begat Pharaoh and Zerah of Tamar, the first woman that's mentioned in the genealogy which happens to be a woman picked up by Judah when he's out in the land of the Canaanites hanging around with his buddy Adullam, picking a Canaanite wife for himself and a Canaanite wife for his son. And then, of course, that's a long-sorted story, but Tamar is not pure for the bloodline at all. Let's keep going. Pharaoh begat Ezra, Ezra begat Aram, and Aram begat Amminadab, Amminadab begat Naasan, and Naasan begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, the harlot. Rahab who is not of the children of Israel, Rahab who lived in Jericho who is of the Canaanites living in Jericho. Let's keep going through this genealogy here. So we have Rahab, and then we have Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Ruth is a Moabitess. So does it look like God is really concerned with making sure none of that darn Gentile blood or Moabit blood makes it into the genealogy of Jesus Christ, or is he not only allowing it to happen, but the only women that he even mentions are all heathen, right? It's like he's drawing attention to it. He's not hiding it, or like, well, you know, it wasn't supposed to be that way. It's like, yeah, Rahab, Ruth, Tamar, yeah. And then the only other woman that's mentioned here in this genealogy, this does not apply to the physical genealogy of Christ, is, of course, Bathsheba, her that had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite. But she's not directly in Christ's actual biological lineage because of the fact that Mary descends from a different son of David. It's Joseph who descends from Solomon, who's the son of Bathsheba. And so, you know, that's not applicable as far as DNA is concerned. It's here because this is a patrilineal thing, talking about the genealogy of Joseph. In Matthew 1, we have the genealogy of Joseph. In Luke 3, we have the genealogy of Mary. But notice, three women that we see in Christ's direct bloodline, we got a Canaanite, a Canaanite, and a Moabite, all right? So that shows that that's not the issue, is it? And not only that, King David, the man whom God chooses to be king, is descended just a few generations ago from this Moabitess. Why is that? It's because, you know what? When Ruth the Moabitess left Moab and said, my God shall be your God, then you know what? At that point, now she's considered part of the nation of Israel because she has renounced her false gods. She's renounced that nation, and now she's coming into the nation of Israel, and she's not considered second class at that point. She's married by Boaz, and their kids are not considered second class at that point, okay? So if you would go back to Ezra with that in mind, the Bible's very clear here on this issue, and it's not just a New Testament phenomenon, but in the Old Testament, we see as well that the bloodline is not the issue. It has to do with the spiritual heritage, the spiritual lineage. It's not something about, you know, we've got to keep this pure blood or whatever. I mean, who does Abraham marry, okay? Who does Isaac marry? Who did Jacob marry? Who did Joseph marry? Does everybody remember who Joseph married? An Egyptian woman. Two of the tribes are half Egyptian. Ephraim and Manasseh. You see what I'm saying? And you could go down the list and see this was never a pure bloodline. That was never necessary. That's not the point. The point of why they weren't supposed to marry the heathen is because these outlandish wives, these strange wives, these foreign wives would cause them to go after other gods, would cause them to do idolatry, would cause them to stray from the Lord. That was the issue. It was not an issue of race or bloodline. That is false, okay? So let's go to Ezra chapter 9. The first thing that's mentioned in Ezra 9 is the fact that, hey, they're marrying these heathen and here's why it's a problem, because they're abominable. They have got idolatry, they're wicked, et cetera. And we'll revisit that later, but I've got to hurry for sake of time here. Look at verse 2. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass. And again, they're not the holy seed because of their blood, they're the holy seed because they worship the Lord. That's what makes them holy. And when I heard this thing, Ezra speaking, I rent my garment, he tears his clothes, and plucked off the hair of my head, so he's ripping his hair out, he's ripping his clothes. He plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down as tawny. So he's basically, as tawny means he's dazed, he's just sitting there perplexed, he doesn't know what to do. You know, you ever see someone get bad news and they're just kind of staring off into space? I'm doomed. It's over, it's all over, you know. We've all been there, right? So he's, we've all been as tawnied at times, all right. Men were assembled unto me, everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And I sat as tawnied until the evening sacrifice. So all the people that fear the Lord and are upset about this, they gather themselves to Ezra, they want to fix it, they feel bad, it's a disaster, and Ezra just kind of sits there as tawnied and they just sit there and just wait until evening. At the evening sacrifice, verse 5, I rose up from my heaviness and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and said, oh my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day. Boy, ain't that the truth. And for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword, to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day. And now for a little space, grace hath been showed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape. I mean, he's saying, just when things are starting to go good, just when things are going well and we're worshipping the Lord and we've got the temple and everything's going to be great and he said, you know, just when we have this little remnant to give us a nail in his holy place, right, something to fasten us where we can stick, you know, and we can have some permanence here like we're going to stay with the Lord, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but have extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia to give us a reviving. We call it today a revival, right? To set up the house of our God, to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments which thou has commanded by thy servants the prophets saying the land under which you go to possess it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. Look, there's no question that everything Ezra is saying here is accurate. He understands the problem. They've definitely sinned, they've definitely disobeyed God, the people of the land are definitely wicked, they were definitely told don't give your sons in marriage to them, don't take their daughters unto you, they're going to corrupt you, they're going to lead you into idolatry. There's no question that all this is true, Deuteronomy chapter 7 makes it clear, don't give your sons to their daughters, don't give your daughters to their sons, it makes it very clear and Ezra is right on here, okay? Verse 13, and after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve and has given us such deliverance as this, you know, that 70 year captivity in Babylon is less than they deserve. God's being merciful to bring them back. But should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations, wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou has consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping. Oh Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous for we remain yet escaped as it is this day. Behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this. So I mean chapter 9 makes perfect sense, I mean everything's right on, straight down the line, Ezra, like I said, he's a great man of God, he knows history, he knows what the Bible says, he's doing great. Look what verse 1 of chapter 10 says, now when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children for the people wept very sore. And Shekiniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, we have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the land. You know, we're sorry, it's true, we did this, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. He's going to, Shekiniah's going to give the solution. Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them. So let's just divorce everybody's heathen wife, everybody who married a heathen, divorce them and the children that they had with those wives, just get rid of all of them. Let's just get rid of them. According to the counsel of my Lord, notice the lower case elder, he's not saying, oh this is something that was counseled to me from Jehovah God here. He's saying, according to the counsel of my Lord, he's saying, hey, if it's something that Ezra goes along with, he's presenting this as an idea to Ezra, saying, look, why don't we do this, and basically if you go along with it, you're going to be the one who runs this, you're going to be the one who counsels this, and you're going to set up the family court to deal with all these divorces. According to the counsel of my Lord, referring to Ezra, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law. Now what they're saying there when it says let it be done according to the law, they're not saying, hey, let's follow God's word here. What they're saying is, we're not just going to throw these women and children out, we're actually going to legally divorce them. We're going to actually do it according to the law. We're going to give them a bill of divorcement. The proof that that's what is meant is that that's what they do. They end up setting up a family court, and it takes them over two and a half months of just continual divorcing to get through all the divorce proceedings. So what they're saying is, we're not just going to throw out these women and children, we're going to actually do this according to the law, and actually do it with a legal divorce. Okay? Arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee. We also will be with thee. Be of good courage, and do it. Come on, we're with you, man, let's do it. It's going to be great. Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests and Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word, and they swear. Then Ezra rose up before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johenan the son of Eliashib. And when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water, for he mourned, because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Israel, and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. Now look, plain and simple, and we're going to keep reading here and finish this, Ezra is wrong. Ezra is wrong. Shekiniah is wrong. That's not how you fix things. Oh, my wife doesn't want to serve God. My wife's a heathen. My wife's unsaid. Oh, just get rid of her. Well, you have kids. Get rid of the kids. Wrong. Is that what Christ taught about marriage? Is that what the Bible taught? You know, the Bible said in Matthew, and we're going to come back to this and finish this, but go to Matthew 19. Keep your finger here. And by the way, where does it say in Ezra chapter 10, and God said, yes, go do that? Or why doesn't it say something along the lines of, and there arose a prophet of God that commanded them to do, you know, thus saith the Lord. Where's Zechariah, the son of Edo, popping up and saying, thus saith the Lord, put away these wives? Where's Haggai the prophet coming and saying, thus saith the Lord, divorce your wives? Where's Malachi, right? Because we want to talk about the prophets of this era. We know for sure that Zechariah and Haggai are the prophets of this era because they've already appeared in the book of Ezra earlier in the book. We saw them in chapter five of Ezra. So we've got Zechariah, we've got Haggai. Now nobody knows when Malachi was written or exactly when he was around, but it's probably around this time, maybe a little bit afterward. That's why it's the last book in the Minor Prophets. I believe the Minor Prophets are all in chronological order. And so you have Zechariah, you have Haggai, Zechariah, and then you have Malachi at the end. And what did Malachi say? Malachi said God hates divorce. Malachi said the Lord God of Israel hateth putting away. That's coming from the mouth of God. What we see here is Ezra and all these Jews saying, how are we going to fix this? And you know what it's like? It's like they've spilled food all over the ground. This is what it's like. It's like they dumped all their food in the sandbox and they're saying, hey, we can salvage this food. Let's wash it off even though it's got dirt all over it. You drop a glass and it shatters. It's not like, all right, let's go get the super glue. Folks, there are certain things where you make a mistake, you can't undo it. It's not that easy to just fix it. Hey, there's still hope here. We'll just get rid of the... Wrong answer. Look what Christ taught. Did I have you turn to Matthew 19? Let's see what Christ taught. And by the way, this is the consistent teaching of the New Testament all throughout. Matthew 19, beginning in verse number three, the Pharisees also came in him, tempting him and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? So can you just divorce your wife for any reason? Any answer instead of them? Have you not read Ezra chapter 10? Is that what he said? He said, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh, wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What God therefore had joined together, let not man put asunder. That's what you should have read and understood from the Bible, Genesis chapter two, second chapter of the law of Moses where man and woman are created and therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, cleave unto his wife, they too shall be one flesh. That is God's original intent. That is what marriage is supposed to be. So what God has joined together, let not man put asunder. They said unto him, well, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you, which means allowed you to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say unto you, and is this not authoritative? This is Jesus. This is the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy speaking to us. The author is speaking to us. I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except to be for fornication and shall marry another, comitteth adultery and whosoever marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Now what's the exception here? What's the exception? If you marry the heathen, is that the exception? Is that what Christ said? No, he said except to be for fornication and by the way, that's the same exception in Deuteronomy 24. Go to Deuteronomy 24. The exception given is fornication, okay? That is the provision of divorce found in Deuteronomy 24. But of course, divorce over the years was abused by people like the Pharisees who just want to divorce their wife for every cause, right? What does the Bible say in Deuteronomy 24 when, when, when, when? Does everybody see the first word? I'm about to tell you when, all right? When a man hath taken a wife. Is this five years later, 10 years later, 20 years later or is this when a man has taken a wife? Get the when here. When a man has taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, well, because of this, that or the other, wrong. When he takes her and she finds no favor in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house and when she's departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. Folks, this is the same type of thing in Deuteronomy chapter 22 where a man goes in and finds his wife not to be a maid. He finds her not to be a virgin and he basically says, hey, I expected this to be a virgin and she's not. This is, this is a lie. Folks, we have an exact example of this again in Matthew chapter 1. What does Matthew chapter 1 say? Joseph was espoused to marry his wife. They're married but before they came together, so they've not consummated the marriage. They've been betrothed to one another. They have basically been promised to one another. They are married. He calls it his wife. He's the husband. She's the wife. But before they came together, before they consummated the marriage, she's found with child of the Holy Ghost then Joseph her husband being a just man. So is he doing the wrong thing? Being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. Let me ask you this. Was Joseph sinful to want to put away and marry his wife? Why? Because Joseph is within the provision of Deuteronomy 24, Joseph is within the provision of Matthew 19, Joseph is within the provision of Matthew chapter 5, Joseph is within what God has always taught here that basically the time, and we would call this an annulment, the time for divorce is basically he marries her, he finds her not to be a maid or he finds some uncleanness in her, that could be an STD or whatever where he decides, I changed my mind. This isn't years later, we're not compatible or 20 years later, you know, one cheated on the other. Or, oh, I know it's years later and we already have kids together, but oops, I wasn't supposed to marry this heathen, so I'm going to divorce her. Where did Jesus teach that? Where did the law of Moses teach that? Where did God say that? He won't find it in scripture. Therefore, if we're going to use a consistent interpretation method of the Bible, we let the statement interpret the story. We let Jesus interpret the story. We let the Lord interpret the story. We let clear scripture from the mouth of God explain a historical book to us. Folks, rightly dividing the word of truth. What do we have? We have the law of Moses, and then what do we have? The historical books, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, that section is called the historical books. Why? Because it's telling us what happened, and it's filled with people doing good things and bad things. It's a mixed bag because it's a historical book. And unless the narrator is commenting and telling us this is right, this is wrong, we have to use the rest of the Bible to interpret it. We use the clear teaching of the New Testament. What did 1 Corinthians 7 teach about if you're married to a heathen? You stay with your heathen spouse. That's what 1 Corinthians 7 taught. Stay with them. Do not forsake them. Do not put them away. Stay married. Okay. That's what the Bible says. And a lot of people would say, well, you know, I don't know if that's what uncleanness means. Well, let me read for you real quick, and I got to hurry for the sake of time. You turn back to Ezra 10 because we're going to finish up there. Let me just read for you every single time the word uncleanness is used in the New Testament just to give you a feel for how the New Testament uses this term uncleanness. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. He's saying you're full of uncleanness. Romans 1.24, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. So what's uncleanness mean there in Romans 1.24? It's talking about fornication. Romans 6.19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded your members, meaning body parts, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 2 Corinthians 12.21 says that they've not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness that they've committed. Notice that litany, uncleanness, fornication, lasciviousness. Galatians 5.19, now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness. Ephesians 4.19, they've given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Ephesians 5.3, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saint. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, those all, that whole first part of the list is all talking about the same types of things and covetousness which is idolatry. 1 Thessalonians 2.3, for our exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor in guile, for God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 10, chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. So more than 10 times we have this word in the New Testament and notice how it's in the same breath with fornication almost every single time. Almost every single time you got uncleanness and lasciviousness, fornication, concupiscence. Well guess what, that's a lot of ways of talking about the same thing. What is lasciviousness? What is concupiscence? Cupid is in there somewhere, right? Cupid is in there somewhere, concupiscence, lasciviousness, uncleanness, fornication, the lust of the flesh, adultery. What are we talking about here? When we talk about uncleanness, we're talking about what Joseph thought he was dealing with. When Joseph thought that Mary had been playing the whore and she wasn't, she was with child of the Holy Ghost but that's what he thought which he can be forgiven for thinking that. I mean here he is, he marries a wife and all of a sudden it turns out she's pregnant. What's he supposed to think? Little does he know this is a one-time event in the history of mankind that he hasn't heard about yet. That's why God sends an angel to explain it to him. So look, Matthew 1, Deuteronomy 24, Matthew 19, Matthew 5 are all saying the same thing folks. And then we have Ezra chapter 10. And I'm not going to turn the Bible's teaching on divorce on its head for Ezra chapter 10. You know what I'm going to say is that hey, Ezra's wrong. Great man of God who did wrong. Now go back to Ezra and let's finish the chapter. And I'm going to give you even more evidence here. And you say, man, you get really fired up about this, folks, you know, I feel the way God feels about it, I hate putting away. I hate divorce. You know, and look, every husband in this room and every wife in this room should be glad that I'm preaching hard on this because we want to know that our marriages are secure. And we want our spouse to feel secure. We want to feel secure. We want our kids to feel secure. We don't want to just have this thing of like, oh, well, divorce is just always kind of hanging out there as an option. And folks, the divorce rate among Christians is pretty much the same as the divorce rate amongst the world. And you know why? Because preaching like this is not happening because you don't have people getting up and screaming whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another commiteth adultery. You don't have that kind of preaching, do you? Why? Because you're going to offend all the people that divorce. But you know what? If you're divorced here and you're hearing what I'm saying right now, you should be agreeing the most because you shouldn't want other people to make a mistake that you've made. So I guess if you stole something, you're going to get mad if I preach against stealing because you stole? I guess I can't preach against abortion because somebody had an abortion. I can't preach against lying because people lied. I can't preach. It's like, folks, I have to preach against every sin, okay? And look, if you've been divorced, I'm not here to beat up on you because you know what? You can't change the past. What you do now is you live right from here on out. Let him that stole steal no more. Let him that's been divorced get divorced no more. Look, if you're on your third wife, make this the last wife, okay? Because look, you've made a vow till death do us part to that third wife. Don't break that vow. You might have broken two before. Stay with who you're married to right now and honor that until the end. And that's called repentance, right? Is when you've done something wrong in the past and you're like, you know what? I'm going to do it right now. Folks, I'm not preaching this. Look, if every single person in our church were already divorced and there were no young people, then yeah, I probably wouldn't preach on this because what's the point? You blew it. Folks, the room's filled with young children who need to grow up understanding that marriage is for life. The church is filled with young married couples. They need to know divorce is not an option. Divorce should be not even a part of our vocabulary in our house, not even in the most knock-down, drag-out fight should this ever be threatened. Well, maybe I'll just divorce you or maybe, you know, no, that should never come out of your mouth. And you know what? We've all had major fights with our wife unless you're one of those few rare people that never has a marriage fight, which, you know, Facebook would make you think it's 99% of people, you know, with their perfect, oh, I'm so happy to be married to the perfect person. It's so great. Look, look, we've all had marital fights. We've all had issues. We've all had problems. And if, you know, maybe you're the rare exception, but I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, okay? But folks, even in the most knock-down, drag-out fight, that should never come out of your mouth. We've all said things we regret, but you know what? I've never said that. We should never say that. Don't say that. And if you've said it in the past, don't say it again. Just decide today, I'm never threatening that. That's not coming out of my mouth. That's not in my vocabulary anymore. Folks, it's never too late to repent and start serving God with your life. Don't say, well, I did it before, so now I'm, no, fix it. Fix it. Do it right now, okay? I'm not trying to offend people, but if people get offended by this sermon, then so be it, because we need this preaching. We need to understand that marriage is till death do us part, okay? And that, you know, this is a wrong course of action. I gotta hurry. There's so much great material here. Where did we leave off? Can somebody remember in chapter 10 exactly where I left off? I don't want to, I want to leave no stone unturned. Ezra chapter 10, I left off somewhere, and I want to pick up right where I left off. Yeah, you know what? It was eight. I did read eight. Yeah, okay. We'll start at nine. I know for sure I read eight. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin, oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. I wanted to bring up the fact that it says at the end of verse eight, himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. So basically what they did, they call out, or I'm back in the story, they bring all the Jews from the captivity, they bring them all to Jerusalem, and they basically separate them. Okay. Who here married the foreign wives? We're going to split you up over here, okay? And who didn't? So not everybody's guilty of this, right? The people that have been guilty, they put them in a certain group. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem. Within three days, it was the ninth month, on the 20th day of the month, and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter. I mean, this is a very serious issue. And for the great rain. And Ezra the priest says, raining hard, they're all standing out in the rain. So the Bible's painting a vivid picture here. Everybody's gloomy and scared and trembling and just drenched in the rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them, you have transgressed and have taken strange wives. And kids, strange doesn't mean weird. Now, truly, you shouldn't marry a weirdo, okay? But he's taught, strange means foreign or so forth. And have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore, make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers and do his pleasure. And separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives. Now some people would say, oh, well, see right here, this is God putting up a sample. Look, just because I got up and just said, hey, guys, do what God wants you to do and divorce your wife. Does that make it so? No. This is not God talking. You know, God wants you to divorce your wife. Really? Did he divorce on that? Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, as thou has said, so must we do, but the people are many and it is a time of much rain and we're not able to stand without. Meaning we can't stand outside. This is going to take a long time. Can we get out of the rain, for crying out loud? Neither is this a work of one day or two, for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. It ends up taking approximately like almost 80 days to do this, all the divorces. Let now our rulers of all the congregations stand and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times. He's saying, look, we need to go home. We're not just going to hang out here like taking a number and waiting in line so that 75 days from now we can get divorced. So what we need to do is we need to go home. It's raining. We're outside. This isn't going to take a day or two. I got to get back to work on Monday morning. So what they're saying is, you know, we're going to have to arrange times where people come in shifts, like, all right, this time, all right, you're going to come on this day. So they had to break this down to where they're on a schedule where the mass divorces are happening for different regions at different times. So he said, you know, let's go to our cities and at appointed times with them, the elders of every city, the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. Only Jonathan the son of Azahael and Jehaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter and Mashulam and Shabbathai the Levite helped them and the children of the captivity did so. And again, some people would say, well, the fact that it's raining, that's the proof that God is demanding this. That's an interesting way to derive doctrine. That's what you're going to base your doctrine on, the weather? Oh, you know, I went to go soul-winding, it started raining. That's why I knew it wasn't God's will, you know. I've never been soul-winding since. Shabbathai the Levite helped them, the children of the captivity did so and Ezra the priest with certain chief of the fathers after the house of their fathers and all of them by their names were separated and sat down in the first day of the 10th month to examine the matter. First day of the 10th month, they start out. So you could think of it as October 10th, okay, in our vernacular. And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month. So, again, over two and a half months later. And among the sons of the priests that were found that had taken strange wives and they just lists all these people that had the strange wives, I'm not going to read that whole list for you. Look at the final, the final verse is so telling. Verse 44, all these had taken strange wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children. That's an interesting place to end the book of Ezra. That's it. Book's over, flip the page, right, new book, Nehemiah. Interesting end to the book. Folks, is that a jubilant end to a book? Is that a triumphant end? Where is the end they live happily ever after? It's a negative ending to a negative fiasco of a situation. So there's no way that you would take this and overturn Christ's clear teaching because of this doomed story. Now, again, with the time we have, let's go to Nehemiah chapter 13 and let's see something similar in Nehemiah 13. I mean this solved everything, right? This saved the day. The mass divorce fixed everything. People have said, well, this had to happen for the genealogy of Christ. Really? Genealogy of Christ is filled with foreigners. Well, this had to happen to preserve the tribal integrity. Really? I only counted two tribes there, Judah and Benjamin. The other 10 tribes already went captive and have already been scattered everywhere. He specifically mentioned when they called for them all to come, it was like, oh, so then I gathered Judah and Benjamin under me and we all divorced the bad wives. So is this going to fix everything? Is this going to solve everything now for the nation of Israel? Well, if we look to Nehemiah 13, what you have to understand is that Ezra flows right into Nehemiah. Ezra is a character in Nehemiah. In the book of Nehemiah, we see Ezra preaching in chapter 8. When we get to Nehemiah 13, we're many years later because there's a little bit of a timeframe given of the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, the king, and then earlier we have the 7th year of Artaxerxes. This is decades after another date and so we can do some triangulation here and figure out this is way later. This is much later in Nehemiah chapter 13. What do we see in Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 1? On that day, they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people and therein was found that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water but hired Balaam against them. And what does it say in verse 3? Now it came to pass when they had heard the law, they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. Wait, I thought they already did that back in Ezra chapter 10 and fixed everything. Here they are in the same place again just a few years later. Few decades later at the most. Same situation. Jump down to verse 23 of Nehemiah 13. In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab. Are we back to the same thing again? Same thing. But here's the problem, folks. Notice the problem in verse 24. And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews language but according to the language of each people. The problem is that they don't understand the language that the word of God is being read and preached in. They're speaking a foreign language. They're culturally more like the Philistines of Ashdod. They're culturally more like these other heathen nations and their language and their religion. And then contended I, or where am I, verse 24, verse 25, and I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair. So Nehemiah has a little different approach than Ezra. Two men, two great men of God, Ezra plucks out his own hair. Nehemiah's like, forget that, I'm plucking out your hair. Everything in the Bible's there for a reason, folks. Ezra rips out his own hair. Nehemiah rips out somebody else's hair. He's chasing people, ripping their hair out, smiting them. I mean, he's socking these people and ripping their hair off their head and making them swear that they won't give their daughters to their sons and so forth. And then he says in verse 26, did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil and to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? Do you notice we're kind of close to the end of chapter 13 here? So does it seem like Ezra's ending kind of in a similar way to the way Nehemiah's ending? Is it ending on a positive note? No, because you know what Nehemiah teaches us is that when you've got the man of God right there breathing down everybody's neck, Nehemiah, then the children of Israel do the right thing. As soon as Nehemiah has to go back to Persia and deal with things, everything goes down the toilet while he's gone. He comes back and everything's messed up. Everything's a mess. When Ezra shows up, it's all a mess. Why? Folks, we're in the same place we're with Moses. Moses goes up on the mountain, everything's a mess. Joshua dies, everything's a mess. Othniel dies, everything's a mess. The next judge dies, everything's a mess. Man of God fixes everything, man of God dies, everything's a mess. Four hundred years under the judges, good king, they serve the Lord. Bad king, they serve idols. Good king, they serve the Lord. God raised up a prophet, people is the prophet. Prophet's gone, everything goes bad again. Ezra shows up, everything's great. Ezra's gone, it's a disaster. Nehemiah leaves, it's a disaster. Folks, what are we seeing here? We're seeing the failure of the old covenant. Not because there's anything wrong with the old covenant, because there's something wrong with us. Something wrong with people. That's why the Bible says if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. If the old covenant could bring righteousness, if the old covenant were faultless, you don't need a new covenant. You need a new covenant because the old covenant didn't work. Not because there was anything wrong with it. The fault was with the people. So what do we see here in Ezra and Nehemiah? This isn't a coincidence that both Ezra and Nehemiah both end showing, you know what, this phase is doomed before it even starts. Before Ezra and Nehemiah are even cold in the ground, it's already a disaster. It's already a fiasco. And what does John the Baptist find when he shows up? A fiasco. The Pharisees are screwed up, the Sadducees, it's a mess. And he has to come and prepare people to even be ready for the coming of Jesus Christ. It's hard preaching. He has to call out all the phonies of his day. Jesus Christ comes on the scene. He has to make a whip and chase people out of the temple, flip over the tables. He has to preach and preach and preach and preach and preach. And what happens in the end? They kill him. They crucify him. And then finally he's done. He says the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation to bring forth the fruit syrup. The end. It's a doomed situation in Ezra and Nehemiah. Even the book of Esther, which seems to end on a triumphant note, there's an undercurrent in the book of Esther, the fact that there's no mention of God in the book of Esther. And the fact that, and I don't have time to develop this, but in Esther chapter 9, after the Jews have already been saved from their enemies, what do they say? Oh, well, let's just go take the bodies of Haman's ten sons and let's go hang them out to dry. You're safe. It's over. And, in fact, let's massacre people at Shushan, the palace, again. Even though the Jews are in no more danger on the 14th day of the month, they just said, let's have another day of slaughter where we kill people who don't like Jews. After the dangers pass, going too far. Okay, why? I'm not saying Mordecai's a bad guy. I'm not saying Ezra's a bad guy. I'm not saying Nehemiah's a bad guy. I'm saying that great men in the Bible do wrong things. They go too far many times, even when they're doing the right thing. Look, Saul was fighting the Lord's battles. But remember when God said, Saul had a bloody house and now I have to curse Israel because he killed too many people? Or what about David? Oh, David, sorry, David, you can't build the temple because you've shed much blood. David got too violent. Saul got too violent. Here we see Nehemiah getting too violent here. Look, I'm against them marrying the heathen, but it doesn't mean that he can force people to swear oaths. This is not within what scripture teaches. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we have the forced oaths. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we have the hair being ripped out. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we have the ending on a sour note. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we have great men of God who are at their wits end and trying to figure out how can I get these people to do what's right, and they can't. Enter Jesus Christ and he comes and fixes everything and brings in everlasting righteousness, a new covenant, a better covenant, and God's people are going to stay faithful unto the end. They're not a specific nation, but a spiritual nation. So in light of all this, we don't want to let Ezra chapter 10 become this thing of, well, you know, there's exception here because, you know, Ezra. And let me explain to you the danger here of taking that interpretation. I'll tell you, there are a couple of dangers that I see here with this. Number one, the danger is that if somebody says, oh, because here's the mainstream teaching that you'll hear out there, is they'll say, well, you know, this was a special situation. You know, dire situations require dire measures and, you know, they had to preserve that bloodline for the Messiah. Well, you've got to preserve the tribal and then, well, you've got to keep the blood pure. None of that ever happened at any point in their history, okay. Well, you know, the nation would have ceased to exist. I think God could have figured out a way for Christ to be born in this world without this mass family court divorce proceeding. But the mainstream view, this is what they'll say, well, this doesn't apply to the New Testament though. It was only for back then. Here's the problem with that. You know what the people in the pew, when they hear this, when they hear that wrong teaching that says, oh, Ezra 10 was an exception, you know what, their little wheels start turning. Where's my exception? Let me tell you something. Any church, when they start going soft on divorce, people get divorced en masse. And look, I used to go to an independent fundamental Baptist church, there's a great soul winning church, King James, and the pastor would get up and say, God hates divorce and God, you know, I've never counseled anyone to get a divorce and God hates divorce. But he was soft on divorce because then he would say, well, there are exceptions. And he'd give all these exceptions and you know what, while I was there at that church it was just divorce after divorce. I mean, people would get divorced and then marry each other in the church. It was just like, it was very unseemly. I mean, how would you like to just come back a couple of years later and it's the same people with wives have been swapped within the church. Wouldn't that seem weird to you? Well, that's what happened when I went back to that church. There were some couples like that and you're like, wait, aren't you married to a, you know, why? Because you know what? You know, you open this door just a little bit and you know what? The devil just wants to kick it wide open and people want to kick it wide open. Look, when people are looking to divorce their spouse, they're going to, they want to find a reason. They want to find a justification. So if you tell them, Hey, the only exception is adultery. Here's what they say. Well, he committed adultery in his heart. I saw him looking at a scantily clad woman that walked by or that, or, well, if you tell them the only, the only excuse is abandonment. Here's what they'll say. Well, you know, he's already abandoned me emotionally or here's what they'll do. They'll be in a contest to see who can get to abandon who. I've seen couples literally try to make the other person miserable so that, well, they left like it just becomes a contest. Who can get the other person to leave and then say, Oh yeah, I was willing to say making the other person miserable. Does everybody get what I'm saying? So if you say, well, these marriages were illegitimate because they weren't supposed to marry heathen. You know what people will then turn around and say, Oh, well, you know what? I married an unbeliever, so that's illegitimate. So let's do Ezra 10 style and get rid of the unbelieving spouse. That's what they do. Folks. These are all real life things that I've heard. This is not me making things up. I've heard the pastor of an independent fundamental Baptist church say, well, he's already abandoned you emotionally. I'm not making that up. That's a real thing from a King James only soul winning pastor that said that. Okay. So it's nonsense to, you know, when you sit there, Oh, well, this exception and that exception, this exception. You know what folks? There is no exception. If you're married right now, you are married and it's still death to you apart. Don't have this thing of, well, you know, in cases of unfaithfulness or abandonment or drunkenness or abuse. That's like the Catholic church doesn't allow divorce except in case of drunkenness. Problem is every Catholic is drunk virtually who's ever known a Catholic who didn't get drunk. It's like the priest is telling, Hey, you can only get a divorce in case of drunkenness. He's already been, he's been drinking all that communion wine before you even preach that sermon. He's like, all right, let's sing our next song. Oh, whoops. Wrong song, folks. If you make all these exceptions, people are going to find a way to fit their round peg through that square hole. That's why Christ just said, you know what, what God has joined together, let not man put us under end of story. Let not the wife depart from her husband. Let not the husband depart from his wife. It's clear cut in the Bible. And this exception is like at the very beginning of the situation when they get married, you know, you can immediately annul it. If there's some kind of revelation that occurs there, that's what that's about. Okay. That's not talking about years later, you got kids and it's like, okay, well, you know, so that's a, that's a rare situation. And you know what? At the end of the day, I'm going to go with what Christ taught and use that to interpret Ezra. Ezra is, Ezra didn't die on the cross for me. I mean, he's a great guy, but Ezra didn't create the universe. Ezra didn't write the mosaic law. Ezra didn't, you know, rise again from the dead to bring salvation to mankind. Okay. We need to go with what Christ taught and Ezra, albeit he was a great man, messed up. And if it was such a great triumphant story about this mass divorce, then why does the book end on a sour note? Because it all ends on a sour note because we need to look to the new covenant, new testament. Revelation doesn't end on a sour note. Revelation ends on a great note, even so come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. That's my word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the bond of marriage, Lord, and thank you for this wonderful institution. Lord, divorce is rampant today and even more rampant is people just living together and not even married, but Lord help us not give up on this institution and help us not to give up on our own personal marriage, but to love our wives, love our husbands, Lord, and just do what's right and not look in the Bible for excuses or exceptions whereby we could get out of what we've committed to, Lord. Help us to honor that commitment until death and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.