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Man, the title of my sermon tonight is marriage licenses in light of the Bible. Marriage licenses in light of the Bible. Let me just come right out and tell you where I stand right at the beginning here. I refuse to ever perform a wedding without a marriage license. I will only promote or perform a wedding that involves a legal document, that involves a marriage license. And I've had tons of people ask me over the years to perform a wedding where there was no marriage license and I always refused and I told them no, that I wouldn't participate in that. And I'm going to explain that to you tonight from the Bible why I believe that it's so important that a marriage license be procured when you get married and that you get married legally in the sight of the state. Now a lot of people, they'll say, oh, you know, you're pro-government and you're a statist and blah, blah, blah. And here's the thing, I'm for liberty and freedom and minimalistic government, but let's not lose sight of the fact that there actually are some things that the government is supposed to be involved in. I mean, just because the government goes overboard and gets involved in a bunch of things where they have no business being involved, let's not throw out the baby with the path water. There still are some things and some functions that the government actually has and should do. And marriage is one of them. A lot of people just say, get the government out of marriage. I say, you're wrong. There is a government aspect to marriage and I'm going to prove that from the Bible. But before I prove that, I want to start out by saying to you tonight that a legitimate marriage consists of three elements. We're living in a day where there's a lot of confusion in our world and that even the most basic concepts are being questioned or thrown out today where we have to go back to the basics and go back to the fundamentals and say, okay, let's define what marriage is. Now, it used to be that everybody just kind of knew what marriage was, but now it's all being called into question in our day. And so let me just start out by saying that a legitimate marriage consists of three elements. I'm going to prove these three elements from the Bible. Number one, there must be a promise. Whether you want to call it an oath or a betrothal, a spousal, a vow, there has to be some kind of a commitment or promise between those two people. That's one element of a legitimate marriage. Number two, there must be physical union. That marriage must be consummated in order for it to be a legitimate marriage. You could have a ceremony and make promises to each other, but if there's not a physical union, that's not really marriage because the physical union is part and parcel of what marriage is. Number two. And number three, it must be legally binding. Okay, so number one is there's a promise or vow or oath between two people. Number two, there's a physical union between those two people. And number three, it is legally binding. It's recognized by law. And I'm going to have three different points on that to prove that from the Bible. Why we need a marriage license, why it must be legally binding. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, you know, before the Civil War, there was no marriage license. Okay, but before that, there was a different way of recording marriages that was legally binding. So if you don't have a marriage license, fine. If you're living in a society where it's legal not to have a marriage license and where you can have some other legally binding document, whether you get some kind of an affidavit, but I'm telling you, throughout history in the civilized world, marriages have been legally binding in all cultures and in all places. So whether that's a document that's kept at the church where the church has a registry where they log all the marriages in the village or the marriages in the town, or whether that's the justice of the peace or whether that's some kind of a magistrate or judge or somebody, these things are to be documented and enforced, and they always have been. So just because it wasn't called a marriage license, it was called something else, friend. It was still legally binding, and I'm going to prove that from the Bible. But let's start out by talking about the other two elements. We said there's a vow, there's a physical union, and it must be legally binding. Let's start out where you are there in Genesis chapter 2, and we see in verse 24, this is sort of the first time we're introduced to marriage in the Bible. It says, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. Now the word cleave is an interesting word because it has two meanings that are the opposite of one another. Isn't that interesting? Because one meaning to cleave something would be to cut it in half, and then another like a meat cleaver, right? And then the other definition of cleave would be to bind the two together. So it means both of those things. So when the Bible says cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh, this is a reverence to the physical union, right? But what I want you to notice is that it says that he will cleave unto his wife, meaning that when he cleaves unto her, she's already his wife. He cleaves unto his wife and they become one flesh. Go to Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19. So we see that right from the beginning, the physical union is mentioned as being a key component of what marriage is, right? The man leaves his father and mother and he cleaves unto his wife and they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. So that physical union right there, they're both naked, they cleave unto one another, they become one flesh. That is part of marriage from the very beginning, Genesis chapter 2. This is reiterated in Matthew 19 verse 5 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 therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So I think it's pretty easy that we could all see and agree that marriage involves a physical union of husband and wife. That's pretty easy to understand. But there's this goofball doctrine out there that basically claims that a physical union that is just marriage in and of itself. Who's ever heard of this doctrine that says, oh, if you slept with someone, then you're just married to them in God's eyes. God just sees that as marriage. That is false. Because there are two other components that must be there in order for that marriage to be legitimate. Otherwise, there'd be no such thing as fornication. You know, if you just went out and slept with somebody and they're just automatically your wife, then okay, that wouldn't be fornication, that'd be marriage now. Wrong. No. There is more to it than that and I'm going to prove that to you. Now, here's where people get this doctrine. Go back to Genesis 24. It's always these young single guys who come up with this doctrine. They barely read the Bible. They just started reading it. They got to like Genesis and they didn't get much further than that and they come up with this weird doctrine. I've never heard this out of the mouth of somebody who spent years and years studying the Bible, somebody who was actually married, somebody who was mature. I've always heard this doctrine just from people who are just total novices, just complete newbies and they come up with this kind of crazy stuff. You need to be careful with that. If you haven't read the Bible cover to cover, you're new to church, you're young in the Lord, you're not yet married, you're a teenager, you're 20, whatever, just be careful not to just jump on strange and diverse doctrines. The Bible says, be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrine. If you're going to just hear about some radical doctrine, you better study to show yourself approved before you just jump on that bandwagon because it seems like the people that I've heard this from were all very inexperienced people and so we need to be careful at that age not to be caught up with this kind of stuff. Here's where they're getting it from. They read this in Genesis 2467, and Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. They read into this verse something that this verse does not say, that just simply by taking her into the tent, that's all it took for her to become his wife. That's not what the Bible, the Bible doesn't say that's all that happened. People are just reading that in that that just automatically made it his wife. Let me show you some scripture to prove that to be false. Flip over to Genesis 34 just a few pages later. Another place that these people will sometimes turn to is they'll go to 1 Corinthians 6 where it talks about being one flesh with a harlot and they say, see, that's marriage. But becoming one flesh is not equivalent to marriage. See, yes, the man and the woman, they cleave unto each other and become one flesh. But you know, it is possible to also become one flesh with someone that's not your wife and that's called fornication or adultery and that's a different subject. But look at Genesis chapter 34 verse 1. Let me just prove this wrong here. It says, And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she barren to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her, and his soul cleave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob. And he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. Now according to these people's doctrine, it's already his wife because he already lay with her. But notice, he lays with her and he speaks kindly to her and they're all in love and whatever, but then he still has to do what? Make her his wife. Jump down if you would to verse 11. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me, but give me the damsel to wife. So notice, they're not married yet, are they? Look at verse 26. This is after, and I'm not going to tell the story for sake of time. You can read it on your own. But Simeon and Levi, they're not too jazzed about this new boyfriend that's fornicating with their sister on the first date. So they end up slaughtering him and his family and the whole town. Now that was wrong. They shouldn't have done that. It was murder. And God condemns them for that in the Bible, that they were wrong to have done that. But that just goes to show you, you know what, you commit fornication, you might die. Whether right or wrong, you wouldn't be the first or the last person who commits adultery or fornication and ends up dying as a result, whether by God or by man. But they go out and they do wrong by slaughtering all these men. But look what it says in verse 26. They slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out. So notice, not only did Dinah and Shechem have a physical union, not only did they speak kindly and lovey-dovey to one another, they're also living together. But yet were they married? No. Why? Because he still had to make her his wife. Okay. You say, well, that's just a story. Okay. We'll go to Exodus 22. Let's look at the law of God. Let's prove it from the law of God that a physical union does not equal marriage. Why? Because I started out the sermon by saying there are three elements to a legitimate marriage. Number one, you've got to have that betrothal or vow or espousal. Number two, you've got to have a physical union. And number three, it's got to be legally binding. Look at Exodus 22, verse 16. It says if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. Wait a minute. I thought it's already his wife. No, it's not already his wife. Just because he lay with her, that does not make it his wife. He has to endow her to be his wife. And if her father utterly refused to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. So it's possible that this marriage might not go forward because the dad says, no, she doesn't want to marry the guy, whatever. But he has to be willing to marry her by law if he defiles her and takes her virginity from her. Go to Matthew chapter 1. So that goes to show that lying with her does not make it his wife. Look at Matthew chapter 1, verse 18. The Bible reads, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So that right there shows you that they were able to be espoused, but they haven't physically come together. So if marriage is nothing more than a physical union, how could they be espoused when that union hasn't even taken place yet? And look at the next verse, 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. This is more evidence that it's his wife, otherwise there'd be no talking of putting her away, which is another word for divorcing her. Well, why does he have to divorce her? Because they're married. They just haven't consummated the marriage yet. Look down at verse number 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee, marry thy wife. So here's more evidence that Mary is his wife. They just have not yet consummated the marriage. So they have done the vow portion of it, but they have not consummated yet at that time. So that goes to show you that it's not just a physical relationship. And you say, OK, Pastor Anderson, I get it. You know, there's an espousal or a vow or a betrothal or a promise or an oath. I get that. Amen. OK, there has to be a physical relationship. I get that, too. But what about this marriage license? It's unbiblical. Where do you get this legally binding stuff? You some kind of a big government guy? Well, I'm going to prove to you three different ways from the Bible that the marriage license is biblical and that marriage needs to be legally binding. Now, when we talk about a traditional marriage in America, how do we go about it today as Christians when we just get married in the normal manner? Well, you have people. They come down to the church house or they go down to the courthouse. And what do they do? They make vows to one another. There's your espousal. And then what do they do? They sign a marriage license. There's your legally binding document. And then what do they do? They go to the hotel and they consummate the marriage. So you have all three elements there in our society. And it's been that way for thousands of years in societies all over the world. Okay. So prove that it's legally binding. Go to Romans chapter seven. First of all, Romans chapter seven, I'm going to show you that marriage should be legally binding. I don't want to get the government out of marriage. The government needs to enforce laws regarding marriage. That's biblical. Look if you would at Romans chapter seven, verse two. The Bible says for the woman which hath and husband is bound by the law. Now bound by the law is another way of saying what? Legally binding. So I didn't just pull that out of my hat. Right? I mean that's what the Bible says. That the woman which hath and husband is bound by the law to her husband. Now it doesn't say she's bound morally, doesn't say she's bound spiritually, doesn't say she's bound ethically. It goes so far as to say that she is bound by the law to her husband. So long as her husband liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's loose from the law of her husband. Go to first Corinthians seven. Just to get a second witness here on this. First Corinthians seven. I'm going to give you three reasons from the Bible why marriage must be legally binding. And if you don't get a marriage license, if you just have a pastor perform a wedding for you where there's no marriage license, there's no legal document, that's not legally binding. You can just walk out of that and there's no consequence legally. There's no repercussion and it's unbiblical and I will never perform a wedding like that. There will always be a marriage license. Look at first Corinthians seven verse 39. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. So there again you have the legally binding aspect of marriage. Go back to Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus, third book in the Bible, chapter 20. So why do we know that marriage must be legally binding? Point number one, because the Bible says twice in the New Testament that the woman is bound by the law to her husband. Point number two on how we know marriage is legally binding is that God places the death penalty on adultery. Now common sense will tell you that in order to place a death penalty on adultery, there has to be some definition of marriage, right? Because how can you show that adultery has taken place if you don't even know who's married and who's not and if you can't even prove legally who's married and who's not? How can you accuse someone of committing adultery with your wife when there's no definition of what that even means to be your wife? There has to be a legal definition of what marriage is that is established by law where the state of Arizona or the state of California or whatever state you live in looks at you and says, okay, you're married. You're legally married in the eyes of the law. Now, is our government enforcing this law about adultery? No, they're not enforcing any laws about adultery, but about 100 years ago they certainly did. Now they weren't putting adulterers to death 100 years ago, but it was a felony. It was still a crime. It was still against the law. Now as far as I know today in 2017, I think adultery is just perfectly legal right now unless you assault your spouse with an STD. If you go out and commit adultery and pick up an STD and give that to your wife, you're shaking your head at me. Is adultery illegal? In some states it's illegal, but I don't know which states they are. Some states it's illegal, some states it's not, but it used to be illegal everywhere on this planet, everywhere in the United States, but times change, don't they? Well, God doesn't change. His attitude doesn't change. Right and wrong doesn't change and one day he's going to set up a perfect government on this earth in the millennium. He's going to rule with a rod of iron and guess what? There's not going to be a no fault divorce law. And guess what? Adultery is going to be illegal. Look at Leviticus 20 verse 10. And the man that committed adultery with another man's wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. How could the government enforce that unless marriage is legally binding? It's dead sure legally binding if you go out and have a physical union with someone other than your spouse and you're punished by death. I'd say that that relationship is legally binding. Number three, go to Deuteronomy chapter number 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24, we said number one, the Bible said it's legally binding because the woman's bound to her husband by law. Number two, there's the death penalty for adultery. That's more proof. But number three, there's the bill of divorcement, which is a legal document. Well, if there's no legal marriage and there's no legal definition of marriage, then how can you have a bill of divorcement in Deuteronomy 24? Look at Deuteronomy 24 verse one, when a man had taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he has 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 is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. And if the latter husband hate her and write her a bill of divorcement and giveth it in her hand and sendeth her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after that she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord. And thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. So here we see the legal institution in the law of Moses of a bill of divorcement, which would make zero sense if there's no legal definition of marriage, if the government has nothing to do with marriage, if marriage shouldn't be a part of our law. Yes, it should be part of the law is legally binding. Go if you would to Mark chapter 10, where this is quoted in the New Testament, Mark chapter number 10. So again, three different reasons biblically why this is a part of marriage. As you're turning to Mark 10, let me review. What does a legitimate marriage consist of? Number one, there must be an oath or vow or betrothal or promise or commitment, some kind of a verbal agreement that where you're saying, hey, we're going to be married for life. We are committing to one another till death do us part. Number two, there has to be a physical union that takes place. And number three, there needs to be something that's legally binding about that agreement. Now you say, why is this so important? Well, there are fake marriages that don't fit this bill. For example, there have been a lot of people that I've talked to, and I'm not thinking of one or two situations I'm talking, I've talked to a lot of people in this situation, believe it or not, where they entered into marriages that were fake, where they never had a physical union with that person because of the fact that they were just getting married for some ulterior motive. You say, why would someone do that? Well, they might do it to try to immigrate to a country. So they'll fake marry someone just to get into the country and maybe just put on a charade of being married, but there's no physical union. Okay. Number two, sometimes people in the military will do this because their pay goes up for being married. And you know how it is, people, they're young, they're foolish, they make decisions like this to say, hey, let's just get married on paper to get those benefits. Okay. But there's no physical union. So there are situations where people get married and then let's say they have some freak out the first day or their wife freaks out and goes insane or whatever, and they never end up consummating that marriage, right? Well, then that marriage was not legitimate. It's not, it must be consummated to be a real marriage. Okay. So the reason I say that is that entering into that kind of a fake marriage is obviously wrong. It's obviously sin because it's a lie. It's deception. And it's also making light of an important institution. It's making a mockery of God's institution of marriage. So obviously doing that is wicked. Pretending to be married, to immigrate to a country, pretending to be married, to get a bigger paycheck. It's fraud. It's a lie. It's wrong. And it's sin. But I would say this, if someone did that, I would not tell that person, hey, you know, you can't get remarried or something because that first marriage was never a real marriage in God's eyes anyway, since it was never consummated. So yeah, the person sinned, they lied, they did wrong, but they can still get married after that. And it's considered their first marriage in the eyes of God because that charade is not recognized by God as a real marriage. Or you'll have other people who do the opposite. They want to get married, but there's some financial penalty to getting married. This happens a lot with the elderly, where they're getting some kind of a retirement or some kind of a social security or some kind of a payout. And as soon as that widow gets remarried, she loses that money. So she says, well, hey, let's just get married, just kind of we'll say our own vow or whatever, but we're not going to do it in the side of the law because I don't want to lose that money. I don't want to lose that retirement or that social security payment. Look, that's wrong. It's fraud, you're lying, it's deceptive, and it's not a right marriage in the eyes of God. So this is why I'm bringing this up. These things have real world applications. So we need to understand what marriage constitutes. A legal contract, a mutual vow and oath before God, and a physical union. I'm not condoning people who make these lies or don't consummate or whatever and then walk out of their oath. Obviously, that's a different sin, but I'm saying that's not considered like getting divorced and getting remarried because the first marriage is null and void. It's not really legitimate in the first place. Go to Mark chapter 10 verse 2. I think I had you turn there. It says, and the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife tempting him? And he answered and said unto them, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered, that means allowed, to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept, but from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. Now the disciples are a little thick on this point because Jesus has already taught this earlier in his ministry. They've already heard him preach on this multiple times. And he just taught it to the Pharisees, but then they, it's like they just, they can't grasp it. They keep asking him about it. He saith unto them, verse 11, why, he wants to make it really clear because his disciples, they're confused. They're not getting it. Whosoever shall put away his wife and marryeth another, commiteth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she commiteth adultery. Very clear. Now, there's another false doctrine out there that says that it's impossible for the wife to divorce a husband, that that was unknown in Bible times. It could never happen in Bible days. There's no example of it in the Bible because they did a Google search on divorce and they didn't find this verse because it doesn't say divorce, it says put away. So don't just search the word divorce in the Bible and then think you know everything about divorce, right? You got to actually read the whole Bible and look up other terms like put away and things like that because what does it say in verse 12? If a woman do what? If a woman shall put away her husband. So there's nothing new under the sun, is there? You say, oh, women divorcing their husbands, that's a brand new phenomenon. Is it brand new? Because Jesus covered it in Mark chapter 10. Everybody see that? If a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she commiteth adultery. This is one of several scriptures that teach the same thing. Let me give you some more examples of why this doctrine is so important besides some of the situations that I laid out a moment ago. I was just reading a book last week. It was an autobiography of a guy and this guy had been what the world calls an alcoholic, what the Bible calls a drunkard. This guy had been an alcoholic and he had had a lot of problems. I was reading his life story. He was an athlete. Basically, he's dating this girl and he lets her know, hey, listen, I'm a recovering alcoholic. I'm going to AA, whatever. She kind of acted weird about it. She's a little nervous about that obviously because people who have fallen down that hole can go that way again. He'd only been sober for like two months, so she's a little nervous about him, right? But she stays with him and they end up getting engaged and they're going to get married. He thought that everything was okay in the relationship. They get down to like a week before the wedding. They've been engaged for like six months. He thinks everything's fine, but she's acting a little weird. He says to him, listen, I'm really stressed out. I'm under a lot of pressure right now. I'm just kind of overwhelmed by all this. Is it all right if we sign the marriage license when we get back from the honeymoon? That's a pretty weird thing to say, right? Like, hey, is it all right if we just sign the marriage license after we get back from the honeymoon? Just take a little of the pressure. It's kind of like, what in the world? How does that make any sense, right? But this guy, he said, you know, even though it was stupid at the time, he went along with it just because he felt like he's on thin ice with this girl. He really likes her and he felt like if he just gave her a little space, took the pressure off her, you know, this is his foolish thinking that basically if he just goes along with it, that'll build the trust or blah, blah, blah. So he foolishly goes along with this, right? So then they have this, you know, this big, huge wedding. All the guests come and everything and, you know, at the recital dinner or not the recital, what do you call it? The rehearsal dinner, she treated him kind of weird. At the wedding, she treated him weird. During the ceremony, she acted normal but then she was kind of avoiding him a little bit and it comes time to sign the documents and she lies to the judge. He didn't tell in the book what the lie was but he somehow, she somehow kind of comes up with some weird excuse and somehow snows this judge into her not signing it. Like oh, we're going to take care of this later and blah, blah, blah. You know, she does a bunch of fast talking and gets out of there without signing it. So they go on the honeymoon and, you know, the first five days of the honeymoon, she won't even barely talk to him, won't touch him with a 10-foot pole, there's no physical union, there's no, right? And it's just what in the world? So he's just kind of giving her his space or whatever and going about his vacation the best he can, having the most miserable vacation ever. Finally, he confronts her on the fifth day and says like, what is the deal? You know, I was trying to just go along and give you space which is always a stupid idea guys anyway because that's another story. But he's like, I was just trying to go along with it, what's the deal? You know, you can't just ignore me and treat, you got to tell me what's going on here. I mean, we're married, you're not even talking to me, you didn't want to sign the document, what's the deal? And she just said, well, I don't have anything to say to you. So he just throws her out of the hotel room and says, this vacation is over, goes home and just, he's perplexed and he goes and talks to all of her friends and nobody will tell him anything. Finally, he finds one of her friends that tells him, hey, she's been with and seeing another man for months and months and just didn't have the guts to break up with you. And she was hoping you'd break it off when she made all these weird requests but you just went along with it. So you know, so the guy's totally humiliated, you know, so he always, he said, he said he always saw her one time in his life after that when he goes to get all the wedding gifts from her so he can return them to his friends and family, right? And this just blew me away. He confronts her about it, I mean, he's mad, he's infuriated. Once he finds out the truth, she's been with some other dude all this time and whatever, he's just like, why have you done this, why have you humiliated? And here's what she said, she said, well, it was just a party. That's what she said about the wedding. What's the big deal? It was just a party. Just get over it. It was just a big party. Look at it that way. Well, here's the thing. This goes to show you the importance of what? The marriage license. Right? Isn't that kind of the moral of the story here? Why doesn't she want to sign the marriage license? Why? Because she's not going to stick with it, that's why. Why doesn't he want to, in some other situation, sign a marriage license? Maybe because they want to leave their option open to have an easy exit, that's why. That's what that story illustrated to me. And let me tell you something, you better be really wary of some dude or some girl that wants to marry you and says, oh, hey, you know, we're libertarian and let's not do a marriage certificate. You know, they might just be pulling the wool over your eyes because maybe they're trying to leave their options open. Because isn't it super convenient if the marriage doesn't work out, if you don't have a marriage license? It's just a party. It's all that it was. No signature of a marriage license. You can just look back on it like this, wicked woman, and say, hey, it was just a party. That's all. Look, I know someone that you say, well, that's just a book you read. You read weird stuff. Okay, well, how about this? How about this? I've known people where this story happened, okay, where they got married, there was a marriage license, they all signed it, and by law, the pastor has to be the one to send it in. It says right on there the pastor has to mail this in or it's a misdemeanor if he doesn't mail it in within the X amount of time. I know a situation where there was a marriage license, everybody signed it, but the pastor didn't turn it in. He left it up to them to turn in, okay, which I'll confess, I've made that mistake before I heard this story because I just naively signed it and people said, oh, we'll mail it in. Okay, fine, you mail it in, right? It's one thing I don't have to worry about, but after I heard this story, I'm like, no, I'll be mailing that in, thank you very much, so now I take that seriously that when I perform a wedding, you know, I make sure that I mail that thing in and I don't hand it to people to mail it in, okay? Well, anyway, these people, they got married, they go home and get in some big argument or fight and the marriage license is torn up and thrown in the trash and never mailed in. Well, that puts the pastor in a weird position because now he's in violation of the law because he performed this ceremony, signed a marriage certificate that's never turned in and then these people ended up just walking away from that marriage. It was pretty short-lived. It didn't even last one weekend. So then they just tear it up and throw it in the trash. That's pretty weird, isn't it? There's some weird things and that's people that I personally knew, okay? And I've known other people in my personal life where I suspected them of just lying and saying that they were married when they really weren't because they just claim to be married but then you watch how easily they slip out of it and you ask yourself, did they really even get married or did they just tell us they were married so that we wouldn't think that they were living in fornication? So you can see, you know, I'm not just going to get up here and just tell a bunch of stories but there are a lot of stories that could illustrate why this matters and why if I perform a ceremony, there's going to be a marriage license that we're going to sign and I'm mailing it in myself, okay, to make sure because otherwise, think about it, otherwise people could lie and be like, oh, I'll mail it in and then one person thinks they mailed it in and then the other spouse just kind of throws it away. You say, why would somebody do that? To keep their options open for an easy exit because then if everything works out, they can just be like, oh, whoops, I messed up, let's get another one and if it doesn't work out, it's like, oh, well, we weren't really married anyway and it's not on their legal record or anything. They can weasel their way out of it. There are a lot of cons out there, a lot of fakes, a lot of liars, a lot of frauds. It's a bad sign when people don't want to get a marriage license. I'm not saying everybody who doesn't want a marriage license is bad because they might just get sucked into all the internet hype and get sucked into all the, you know, oh, man, the 501c3, government controlled, you know, marriage license and they get all into too much deep into conspiracy theories where they throw out the baby with the bathwater. And here's the thing, marriage is supposed to be hard to get out of. It's supposed to be difficult to extricate yourself from. It should be legally hard to get out of and it should be socially hard to get out of. Why? Because it's not supposed to end. It's supposed to be binding. It should be socially binding, morally binding, legally binding. And when people end it, it should be a little bit cataclysmic. Why? Because then people will think it through before just casually checking it in the trash. It should be a legal nightmare so that they stop and think about it before just, oh, forget it. And just going through with weddings, even when they know they don't want to be with that person, they'll just go through with it because they just think, oh, well, it's too embarrassing to cancel the wedding. It's less embarrassing to just end the marriage a week later. I mean, that's just sick. That's just weird. You think that that is the only situation like that? Oh, no. These things happen all the time. There are some weirdos out there, my friend. But today, our society just makes it way too easy to just walk away. Now, even with a marriage license, it's bad enough. Marriage has already been torn down to where ever since 1969, you have this no-fault divorce law where people can just get divorced for no reason. It's easy to walk away. No questions asked. But when you eliminate the marriage certificate from the equation, now you just remove the last bit of bondage. And now it's just going to be super easy. It's going to be like just breaking up with your girlfriend. Right? I mean, that's what it becomes when there's no legal finding. Now let me give you a perfect example of what I'm talking about, Kent Hovind. Now I'm going to call out the elephant in the room about Kent Hovind. And this just blows my mind. And the thing that gets me upset about it, it's not just because of Kent Hovind's walk with God. You know, that's his business. What Kent Hovind does is his business until he gets up and makes a video condemning anyone who believes right about marriage and divorce and calls them all hypocrites and Pharisees and insinuates that they all have horrible skeletons in their closet and that's why they're attacking him. And Kent Hovind's got a video with 75,000 views on it where he does just that. And he says, you know, it's not my fault that my wife divorced me and I'm going to go out and marry this other woman. And anybody who tells me that I'm wrong is a Pharisee and a hypocrite. And then he starts talking about how the prosecutor that put him in prison was this horrible pedophile. And then he just goes right from that to saying like, yeah, and these people who are commenting on YouTube that what I'm doing is sin, they've probably got some skeletons in their closet too. You know, comparing them to like a violent rapist. Now let me tell you something. Every preacher worth his salt believes the words of Jesus Christ when he said, whosoever marrieth her that is divorced commiteth adultery. And that if you put away your wife and marry another, you're committing adultery. I mean, that's what Christ said. That should be a case closed right there. But Ken Hovind puts out this video, 75,000 viewers, 1000 people have clicked like on it, where he states that anybody who tells him not to get married is a Pharisee and a hypocrite and all these other horrible things. And this is when the ink was not even dry on his divorce from his wife. Okay. Now, look, at the time when his wife was divorcing him, I was defending him. Because I was saying like, hey, this isn't right, his wife shouldn't be divorcing him. And amen, I still stand by that, that no wife should depart from her husband or divorce her husband for any reason. And he's just out making himself out to be this victim like, oh, my wife's leaving me. And there's nothing I can do about it. I'm trying everything I can, you know, then you find out later, he's already dating the next person before the divorce is even final. That's him supposedly trying to save his marriage. He's already dating the next person, Mary Toco, that he's going to get married to. And you say, well, you know, how dare you talk, you're gossiping, how dare you talk about this. You know what? When somebody gets up and publicly states, I'm getting married, my wife has divorced me, and I'm marrying someone else, and I want to be a divorced role model. He literally said, I want to be an example to other divorced people to do as I'm doing, and God told, you know, it's God's will, I prayed and fasted, and God wants me to marry this divorced woman. Okay. When he gets up and publicly proclaims that to his 75,000 viewers, that's not a private issue anymore. And then for him to sit there and attack anyone who disagrees with him, and then he just makes everything public, big public wedding, big public proclamation of how it's God's will, and I want to be an example. Well, when you get up and say, I want to be an example, I want to be an example to other divorced people, then you know what? Don't get surprised when people look to you as an example. But isn't it funny how now all of a sudden he wants to say, oh, it's none of people's business. That's my private life. Well, let me explain something to you. When you're the President of the United States, your marriage and you committing adultery is not private anymore, because when you're the President of the United States, people expect you not to be committing adultery in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton. And that was the same kind of garbage that people tried to pull out back in the 90s with Bill Clinton when he is committing adultery and people said, well, that's his personal life. You stay out of his business. You mind. No, no, no. That's our business when that's our leader. When you're the President of the United States, there's a responsibility that comes with that authority where you're to be held accountable for your actions. And so Bill Clinton did not have the right to commit adultery and to commit filthy acts and then just say, hey, stay out of my business. Wrong. That's everybody's business at that point. And you know what? When you're the pastor of a church, you can't just get up and say, oh, well, that's my business, my marriage, and, you know, OK, my wife left me, but, you know, that's my own business. Well, actually, no. When you're going to lift yourself up to that position, you better be ready to give an account for major things like that in your life. And obviously, everybody should have their privacy. But you know what? The whole point of this sermon is about the fact that marriage is not private. Marriage is supposed to be a public record, and it's supposed to be legally binding. You don't get married secretly. You get married, and it's on file down at the courthouse, and you're legally bound to that spouse. And when you're going to get up, and Ken Hovind today is getting up every single day and uploading his videos where he's teaching the Bible and preaching the Bible, but he doesn't want to give account for the wickedness of his personal life, which he wants all of a sudden to be so private when it was super public while he was sinning and rubbing all of our noses in it. You say, well, why cover this? Why get fired up about this? I'll tell you why. Because I hate this stupid doctrine that makes marriage so easy to get out of. No, it's supposed to be binding. And you know why I hate this doctrine? Because I get too many phone calls from too many men who are saying, my wife's leaving me, I don't know what to do. And I hear from too many women that say, oh, my husband left me, I don't know what to do. I've seen so many people commit suicide. I've seen their lives ruined. I've seen lives destroyed, children destroyed, marriages destroyed. And you want to know what the number one reason why? It's a stupid doctrine coming from churches that says it's okay to get divorced. You just marry someone else and it doesn't matter, it's no big, just a party to them. That doctrine is garbage and I'm going to take it to task. And if a prominent Bible teacher is going to get up and teach this garbage and call everybody names if they don't agree with them, well, then I have the right to get up and say, you know what, this guy is teaching lies, let's take him to task for it. Here's my question for you, Kent Hovind, did you get a marriage license when you married your second wife? Because it seems like that marriage ended pretty quick and pretty easy. Now I don't know because, you know, he won't tell us anything, he won't say anything to us. Anybody asks him a question about it, their comment gets deleted, they get blown off. But here's the true story, he got married to his second wife who's divorced a year ago, everybody tried to warn him, hey, you're doing wrong, you're committing sin, that isn't right, he blew off all the warnings, called everybody names. Okay, you want to be an example to divorce people everywhere, you prayed and fasted and sought God's will, so how did that marriage go then, Kent Hovind? Because his marriage has already failed. Here we are, it lasted a matter of mere months. So is Kent Hovind going to give us all an apology now? Is he going to come out and say, hey, sorry that I called you Pharisees and hypocrites, you guys are actually right? Or how about this, even if he's not even going to admit that he was wrong, why doesn't he at least come out and actually give his followers the courtesy of even telling them what even happened after he already told them so publicly about, oh yeah, we're getting married, it's so great and everything's awesome, oh really, why don't you tell us that your wife, your second wife has now left you? Why don't you come out and tell us that, huh? Nobody has the right to know that, oh, you're gossiping. You know, I'm so sick of the stupid accusation of gossip when people want to hold someone accountable as a leader. You know what, and let me tell you something, if my wife disappears from my home for weeks or months or years, you have a right to an explanation about that. And I'm not going to sweep that under, I'm going to come to church and say, listen everybody, my wife left me, okay? And I'm stepping down as pastor now because I have failed to rule my home. That's what's going to happen if my wife leaves me. You understand me? And you have every right, if my wife doesn't come to church for three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, seven weeks, to walk up to me and say, where's your wife? And if I say, that's none of your business, that would be ridiculous. But this is what's going on today, it's unbelievable. He said in this video of his first wife, because we have to distinguish now between the first wife and the second wife, both of which are gone. She's an amazing woman and a wonderful Christian. I don't know what else I could have tried. Maybe you could try not dating the second wife while you're still married to the first. That'd be a good place to start. And let me tell you something, I can't even count how many times, I can't even count how many times I've talked to a guy whose wife just left him a couple days ago, right? He's already talking about getting remarried, and his wife left him two days ago, three days ago, a week ago, all the time. And I'm always telling this guy, your wife just left you a week ago, why are you already thinking about marrying the next person? Aren't you going to try to salvage this? Aren't you going to try to fix it? Well, yeah, I'm going to try to fix it, but if I don't, what about the next one? It's like you've already moved on to the next one in your mind, and then you're wondering why you can't fix your marriage. Oh, I tried everything. I tried every... Oh, really? You tried everything? No, you're building a stupid dinosaur adventure park instead of fixing your marriage. You're out singing Kumbaya with a bunch of hillbillies out in the middle of nowhere. You've left civilization, went out in the wilderness with a bunch of hillbillies singing Kumbaya, and then you're like, oh, I tried everything, I don't know why my wife left me. Hey, your wife left you because of the fact that you didn't try to fix your marriage because you're dating someone else and hanging out in the woods with a bunch of other people. Why doesn't somebody tell it like it is about these leaders of our day, these preachers that are going to lead people down a path that's going to ruin their life? She's an amazing woman, talking of his first wife, and a wonderful Christian. I don't know what else we could have tried. Ten minutes later, he says, well, according to 1 Corinthians 7.15, if the wife departs, you're not under bondage, so I'm not under bondage. That's why I'm getting remarried. Hold on a second. That's not what that verse says. You know what that verse actually says? It says, if the unbelieving depart. You just told us that your wife's a wonderful Christian. Now all of a sudden, she's an unbeliever departing? There's like a hundred comments from people on Ken Hovind's channel commenting and saying, well, the Bible says if the unbelieving depart. It's like, hold it. That's not what that verse means, number one. But number two, since when is his wife an unbeliever? Even he admits that she's a dedicated Christian. But he said, well, no one can judge me, because judge not that thou be not judged. And if you've ever lusted after a woman in your heart, you're guilty of adultery, too. So it's fine. Here's the difference. When men that are Christians lust after a woman in their heart, they don't say, I prayed and fasted, and God wants me to lust in my heart after a woman. Is that what they say? And in fact, I want to be an example everywhere, as I lust after women. See, it's not the sin that's offensive. It's the justifying the sin and teaching other people to commit that same sin and telling other people that divorce is OK. And planting that seed in their mind. And let me tell you something, I never want to be guilty of planting the seed in the mind of my congregation. Hey, you know, there's a way out of marriage. You can always throw in the towel. You can always get divorced. That'll never, I'll never plant that seed. In fact, I want to go in with the trowel of God's word and the hoe of God's word and just rip up that seed and rip it out and rip up the root of that wicked plant, that wicked weed. But these preachers, and he's just one of them, oh, there's a lot of preachers that teach the same garbage. These preachers, look, every person practically that I've ever known who is a Christian whose wife left them or their husband left them, they'll say, oh, yeah, my spouse, the pastor was telling them the whole time that they were right to divorce me and right to leave me, that they were justified to do so. You know, if you've ever stolen anything, then you're a sinner too, so you can't criticize, he said. He said, the Bible says thou shalt not steal. Those who are criticizing, are you innocent of that one, he said? And then he said, I haven't even kissed her. Oh, hey, if you're going to commit adultery, do it right. Don't kiss until the wedding day, right? Then he says this, well, the Bible says against an elder receive not an accusation, and I'm an elder. That's what Hovind said in his video. Well, isn't there a little more to that verse? Like against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, right? So he just says, well, against an elder receive not an accusation. So I guess every pastor can just go out and just do anything, because I can just go out and commit all kinds of wickedness, and then I can just say, well, don't receive an accusation against an elder. That's weird. And you know what? That's an intentional twisting of scripture. He knows that that's not what that verse says. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think that you can never receive an accusation against an elder. No, no, you're supposed to have, what, two or three witnesses. Okay. Well, hey, it's no secret there's 75,000 witnesses when he's coming on a video saying, hey, my wife just divorced me, and now I'm marrying this other woman who's also divorced, and I'm divorced and she's divorced and we're getting married. There's 75,000 witnesses right there on the view count. He says, we've talked about this, we cried about this, and we're not under bondage. We tried to do the right thing for most of our life, and we think that God is pleased. And he goes on to say this, anybody who doesn't watch their kids, and he says this twice, anybody who doesn't want their kids watching his videos anymore because of this, he said is a moron. He said, if because I'm divorced from my wife and I'm marrying this divorcee, if you're going to not let your kids watch my videos anymore because of this, you're a moron. Let me just say right now, my kids, kids, have you watched Ken Hovind's videos before? Right? Yeah, I've had my kids watch his videos. Let me just tell you something. This moron right here is never going to let my kids watch Ken Hovind's videos again. You want to know why? I don't want my kids to have a role model of somebody who's going to teach them a permissive view on marriage and divorce because I want my kids to get married one time and to stay married until death, and to only get remarried if their spouse dies. So I don't want Ken Hovind to, I tell my kids, hey, don't listen to Ken Hovind because Ken Hovind is going down a dark path. He said, I talked to 15 godly men that I trust. I talked to 15 pastors. You know what this reminds me of? When King Ahab, he got like, how many pastors? Like 400. He got like 400 pastors to tell him what he wanted to hear, and then one true man of God told him no. He said, I got 15 godly men that I trust that are all ages 60 to 85, and 14 out of 15 told me this, there's nothing you can do. You did nothing wrong. Just get remarried and go serve God with your life. So it's like 14 out of 15 doctors agree that Advil is the best headache medicine, right? Fourteen out of 15 told him. OK, so I watched the ceremony where Ken Hovind gets married. In the first 30 seconds of the preaching of this, listen, the guy who performed the ceremony, he's in sin. He shouldn't be performing a ceremony that's wrong. This is one of his yes men preachers. The pastor who performed the ceremony in the first 30 seconds of his sermon said, the promise that you make today must be renewed and re-decided tomorrow. Let me just say that again. The promise that you make today must be renewed and re-decided tomorrow. Let me tell you something. I'm not going to re-decide tomorrow whether or not I'm going to stay married to my wife. It's not like, well, I don't know if I'm going to renew the subscription. I think, honey, I think I might just let this expire. It's been a great run. It's been a great 17 years. I think I'm just going to let it expire. My wife and I don't need to renew our vows because guess what? They never expire. The expiration date is death. And so it's never going to end until then. But he said, no, the promise that you make today must be renewed and re-decided tomorrow and the next day and the next day after that and the next. I mean, look, I don't even wake up on Sundays and decide whether or not I'm going to go to church. Who woke up this morning and decided whether or not you're going to come to church? I bet most of you didn't even decide to come to church. Most of you just came to church because you go to church on Sunday. It wasn't like you had to be like, are we going to church today? Are we going to church? No, because you get to a certain point in your Christian life where you stop deciding to go to church. You just kind of make one decision that says, I go to church on Sundays. I go. It's not, well, do I go? No, it is. And we need preachers today that will strengthen and confirm the sanctity of marriage and the binding nature of marriage and not to tear it down. We don't need preachers like Kent Hovind tearing down marriage and making it even weaker than it already is. And the thing that is the most sickening about it is the fact that he enters into this union. Everybody warns him not to do it. He won't listen. He lashes out and viciously attacks everyone who says anything negative about it. And then when it fails within months, he doesn't even have the decency to tell people that it failed, to even tell people, by the way, folks, I've got bad news. My second marriage ended. You say, well, how do you know it ended? Well, you know, how do I know that? I mean, mom's the word. He's certainly not explaining it. He's certainly not telling his followers that watch him explain the Bible every day and sing Kumbaya with a guitar. His wife has even come out and stated, I no longer have anything to do with Kent Hovind. What he does is none of my business. He won't listen to anybody. She changed her name back on all her stuff from Mary Tocovind just to Mary Tocovind. All her stuff's been deleted from his website. It's like it all just went down the memory hole. Like it just really quietly just kind of disappears. It was all big and blown up and in our faces when it was happening. But then they just slink out of it. And people say, well, you know what everybody says? Well, you don't really know because there's no divorce record. But here's my question. And I don't know. If I'm wrong, then set us straight on it. Kent Hovind, tell us the truth. Here's my question. Is there ever going to be a bill of divorce? Is there ever even going to be a bill of divorce? Is there ever going to be a divorce record? Or was there never even a marriage license procured in the first place? Now I don't know. I'm not claiming to know. But you know what? Don't you think that that's a question that deserves to be answered? That people who listen to him and follow him and have donated to his cause and have put their children in front of his videos, don't you think that that's a question that they have a right to have answered? Was there even a marriage license in the first place? And why are you not telling the world that your wife has left you months and months ago? I know of another pastor whose wife left him years ago. And it's like he'll never tell anybody. He just goes on preaching and just goes on like nothing happened. That isn't right. That is not right. But the lack of a marriage license makes it super easy to just slink out of these commitments. And look, I'm not saying that he doesn't have one. But you know what? No one can find a marriage license or a bill of divorce in that situation. So nobody even knows. We don't even know. I mean, set the record straight. Tell us. It's a shame. It's a shame. And you know what? All of these examples go to show the importance of doing things right and doing things legally. And that is why I will never perform a wedding without a marriage license. If you come and ask me, I'm going to tell you no. I don't care who you are. I don't care what your situation is. I will never participate in a wedding that is not legally binding. Why? Because it's meant to last. And it's not just morally binding. It ought to be socially binding where people demand an answer and say, hey, you're accountable for why your marriage has ended, and then you're going to keep on preaching, marry a divorced woman, not tell us when that fails. People need to hold it accountable socially, and people need to hold it accountable legally. Shouldn't be that easy to just slip out of it, walk away from it. Why? Because it puts you in a situation where we could call – look, and again, I don't know. I'm speculating. You say, you're going to speculate. What else can I do? When nobody tells you the truth, when people lie and cover it up, what else can you do but speculate? Look, if there's no marriage license, let's just say hypothetically there's no marriage license, then you could ask somebody in that situation, are you married? Are you even still married? And what could they say? Yes. Because there's no divorce, right, because how can you have a divorce without a marriage? Or you could ask the question like, so are you married? Are you even still married? And they could say, no, that would also be true because they were never even legally married in the first place. You see how this creates a really handy situation where people just depending on their mood and depending on the situation can be married one day and not married the next day, and it just depends on who they're talking to. It just depends on what the situation is. So don't fall for this libertarian garbage, and look, I'm for most libertarianism. Don't fall for this libertarian garbage that says no marriage license. It's just a way for people to slink out of marriage super easily. And I don't know if that's the situation on this case in point, but knowing what you know about what he teaches about government, would it really shock you? Because I heard him out of his own mouth saying, well, there were no marriage licenses before the Civil War, and you know, even without a marriage license, you're still married. So I don't know, but would it shock you? Hey, why don't you come out, Ken Hovind, and apologize to all of us that you called Pharisees and hypocrites, and then you can set us all straight and give us the facts. Tell us about why the second marriage failing wasn't your fault either. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the institution of marriage, Lord. I pray that we would not drag it in the mud, Lord. I pray that we would be respectful toward it. I pray that preachers who teach these lies that ruin people's lives, ruin people's marriages, create broken homes, cause children to be torn between two sets of parents, Lord. I pray that the preachers that teach these lies, condoning this easy divorce garbage, I pray that they would all be confounded, Lord. And I pray that they would be silenced, and that men of God who stand up and preach the truth about the sanctity of marriage, Lord, would stand up and thunder across pulpits from east to west in this country, Lord, so that we could bring back the sanctity of marriage in this country, Lord. The Sodomites have already done enough damage to it, Lord. I pray that God's people would not do more damage to it by weakening the bonds of marriage, Lord. I pray that every person who's been sucked into this non-marriage license philosophy to repent of that, Lord, and to conform their doctrine to your word, and to do things right, and if there's anybody out there who has some fake marriage that's not certified with a license, I pray that they would go down and get a marriage license and make that thing official and legally bond.