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Father, I just pray that you would help us to know what to focus on tonight. And Holy Spirit, I just pray that you would fill me tonight as I preach and lead me to say the things that you would want me to say, dear God, and that you would open the hearts of those that are listening, that they would be receptive to God's Word. And in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Now, Matthew chapter 19 starts out at the beginning of the chapter with Jesus making a change in scenery. He finishes up the sermon that we looked at last week in Matthew 18, that he was preaching just to his disciples. Then we see him go from Galilee and into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan, so he's in a little more of an outlying area. And the Bible says gray multitudes followed him. That means they came with him. He moved this great geographical stretch here, and all these crowds of people came with him. Well, another group of people came also when they heard that Jesus was in this new area preaching, the Pharisees. And, of course, the Pharisees are always trying to entangle him with his words, the Bible says. They're always trying to prove him wrong. They thought that they knew the Bible, but because they were unsaved, because they didn't have the Holy Spirit to guide them, they were totally unsaved. They were not interpreting the Bible by faith. They had missed the whole point on just about everything. See, the Bible says through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. See, the way that we understand the Bible, the way to understand the Old Testament or the New Testament, is by faith and unsaved. People just don't have faith. And so these Pharisees come to Jesus Christ, and they come with the purpose of trying to prove him wrong and try to show how much they know the Bible. And here's what they ask in verse number three. It says they were tempting him. Now, tempting him means that they were testing him out, kind of like the word attempt, when you try something. They were kind of testing him out, see what he'd say, see if they could get him to say something wrong so that they could have someone to accuse him. Well, they're tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Now, in our terminology, what they're really asking is, Is it a sin? That's what they mean when they say, Is it lawful? We would probably say, Hey, Jesus, is it a sin for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Is it a sin for a man to divorce his wife? That's basically what they're asking. Well, look what he answers them. And he answered and said to them, Have ye not read? See, there's a problem right there. They weren't reading the Bible. Remember earlier in Matthew 12 and 13, we saw that it was all their traditions that they were so interested in. And they did err, Jesus said, not knowing the scriptures. He said, Do ye not err, not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God? And so the problem was they weren't reading. That's where you're going to start. Now, what I'm going to preach about in the next, let's see, the first 12 verses of this chapter about a certain subject. And if I preach about this and you don't like what I'm preaching, it's probably because you haven't read. And I'm not talking about you haven't read somebody's book on marriage. I'm talking about you haven't read this book right here. And if you don't agree with what I'm saying or if you say that I'm, you know, mean or whatever, because I preach what the Bible says here, it's probably because you haven't read. It's probably the same problem they had. They hadn't read the Bible. And so he answers them and 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 therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, period. You see that? Now he's done talking because the next thing that's going to happen is that the Pharisees are going to start talking. So this is the answer to his question. Is it a sin, Jesus? Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? He says, look, he answered and 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 therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, period. So the answer to the question is simple. I mean, if you just read this with an honest heart and you're not trying to make it say something that it's not and approach all the scriptures the way that you would approach this one and just say, What does it say? Hey, let not man put asunder, period. Yes, it is a sin to get a divorce. Divorce is a sin. Now, what did they say to him? Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? Let's look at that. Deuteronomy 24. This is the only place you're going to find that. Flip if you would in your Bible to Deuteronomy 24. Let's look at the command of Moses that they're referring to so we can get the whole picture here. Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy 24, look at verse number 1 right at the beginning of the chapter here. This is the exact scripture. This is the only scripture that they're referring to that's like this. And this is the scripture that they're referring to. Deuteronomy 24.1. When a man had taken a wife and married her and had come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he had 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, okay, notice those two words right there, hate her. Okay, I'm going to show you something in a minute. And write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send 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's the picture here. The Bible here, which is written by Jesus Christ, written by the same man that we're reading in Matthew 19. I mean, this is the scriptures, this is Jesus Christ speaking. And the Bible says here that if a man is married his wife, and it says that he finds an uncleanness in her, let's talk about when they get married and I'm going to prove that to you in a second. Then it says he can write her a bill of divorcement, send her out of his house and she can go marry someone else. Now this is not talking about somebody who's been married and they decided to get a divorce. This is talking about a person takes his wife, he goes to consummate the marriage and he finds some uncleanness in her. What am I talking about? Well, flip back two pages and look at Deuteronomy 22. I'm going to show you this. We have to compare scripture with scripture here and see what the Bible is talking about. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 and look at verse number 13. And you're going to see the same two words I mentioned to you before. If any man take a wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasions of speech against her and bring up an evil name upon her and say, I took this woman and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Now look, think with me logically as you read this. This is talking about a man who gets married, they perform the ceremony, he goes in unto his wife, the Bible says, and immediately hates her because he finds her not a maid. He finds some uncleanness in her. That's talking about a physical uncleanness. It's talking about, look, the word uncleanness in the Bible, in the New Testament, is talking about fornication. I mean, it's talking about sin that has to do with your body. I'll put it that way for the kids' sake. And in the Old Testament, uncleanness is talking about sanitation type uncleanness. Those are the only two meanings that you could really have of those words. It's not saying he didn't like the way that she cooked. It's not saying he didn't like the way that she decorated the bathroom. It's not saying he didn't like the way that she squeezed the tube with a toothpaste. Or, he didn't like the way that she always was arguing with him and she didn't appreciate him. Okay, it's talking about a man who just got married, he just went into his wife, he finds out that there's some uncleanness there. He finds out that she has been around, so to speak. Maybe there's some kind of a disease there. Maybe there's something there that's indicating to him, wait a minute, this is not what I expected when I said I do. This is not what I bargained for. Now look, go back to Matthew chapter 24, if you would. Or, I'm sorry, Matthew 19. We're in Deuteronomy 24. And I just want to teach this to you because there's so much false teaching in this area. And I want to get the rest of the chapter, it's such a great chapter. But look, if you would, at verse number 8 of Matthew 19. He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Now you see that word suffer? The word suffer means to allow something that you don't want to allow. It would be as if my wife wanted to do something, and I did not want to do it, and I suffered her. You know, it's not my idea. But I just say, fine, we'll do it your way. And that's what the Bible says here, that Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, allowed them to divorce their wife. That they'd been married to for three years, right? That they'd been married to for six months, and they found out they were incompatible, right? No. He's talking about when he came into her, and he found out, this woman is not a maid, so this woman's not a virgin. She's been around, there's uncleanness here, and it's not what I want. Now look, it was because of the hardness of his heart, because of the hatred that he had in his heart for his new wife. Now look, he could have just looked past it and said, hey, you know, I forgive you, and whatever, and moved on. But because of the hardness of his heart, he says, I hate you, I can't believe that you've done this, and he said, I don't want anything to do with you. And then, so there was an allowance made, not God's perfect will, but an allowance made where he would suffer them to divorce and put away their wife so that she could marry someone else. Now, if you look at, let me show you where I was going to go next here. There's so many scriptures on this, and I had to really pick which ones I was going to show on this, just so that I don't take up the whole sermon on this. But if you look at, back at chapter 22 of Deuteronomy, I'm sorry I had you turn from there, because I wanted to show you one last thing. Look at verse number, let's see here, verse number 14 at the end, it says, I found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city and the gate, and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hated her, and lowly hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity, and they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city, and the elders in that city shall take that man and chastise him. So here, this is where they're proving, yes indeed she, in fact she was a clean woman, yes she was a virgin, and look what the consequence is in verse number 19. And they shall immerse him in an hundred shekels of silver, that's a fine that he has to pay, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he had brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel, and she shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. See, that was the only acceptable reason where God would even allow a divorce to take place, is on this initial consummating of the marriage. If he finds that she's not a maid, if he finds that there's uncleanness there, he has the right to say, no. Just right there, that first moment. But if it turns out that she really was, hey, nobody, you're not going to divorce her for the rest of your life, because divorce is a sin, divorce is wrong. This is not modern day type divorce that the Pharisees were talking about, when they said, can a man put away his wife for every cause? Does, he doesn't like her, you know, they don't get along, if they're not compatible, can he divorce her, or whatever reason? Look, divorce is a sin. Now I could literally take you to just a ton of passages right now, I'm just going to show you a few of them, because I don't have a lot of time, but look, if you would, at Matthew chapter 19, where we were, keep your finger there. If you haven't figured it out, we're going to keep going back there, so. Always keep your finger in Matthew 19 when we turn somewhere else. Look, if you would, it says here, He saith unto them, Moses, because of the harvest of your heart, verse 8, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. He said earlier, hey, don't put asunder what God joined together, sir. And then the next thing he says is, the only reason for that was because of the hardness of your heart. From the beginning it was not so. He said, there used to be no such thing as divorce. I intended a man and a woman to be married for life, that's my will. He says, look, it's wrong. And then he says, the only exception was made there because of the hardness of your hearts. And then look at verse number 9, see the first word of verse number 9, and. So he's already told us that divorce is a sin. He's already told us that it's wrong. He's already told us that it was only because of the hardness of their heart that he even allowed them to do it in that one instance. But it says in verse number 9, and I say unto you, he's adding to what he's saying. Whosoever shall put away his wife, excepted be for fornication, and shall marry another, comitteth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. Now look at this, a lot of people will try to take this verse right here and say that fornication, like a woman being unfaithful, is a reason why people can get a divorce, like it's grounds for divorce. Like let's say, and I'm just going to speak frankly with you on this because I want to teach you what the Bible really says because I want to put the last nail in the coffin on this lie out of hell that divorce is OK. And 95% of independent fundamental Baptists do not agree with what I'm saying right now, I'll tell you that right now. But let's say my wife and I, we've been married for six years now. Let's say my wife is unfaithful, God forbid. And let's say she goes out and commits adultery. Now 95% of independent fundamental Baptists will say, yes, you have grounds for divorce. You may divorce your wife. Now look, does this say adultery right here? Is the word adultery in verse number nine about a grounds for divorce? Except it be for fornication. Now does anybody know the difference between fornication and adultery? Fornication is before you're married. Adultery is after you're married. So except it be for fornication, look at the context. He was just referring to Deuteronomy 24.1. That's what they're talking about. So this whole conversation is about why did Moses then command to give her a bill of divorce and then to put her away? And they're talking about Deuteronomy 24.1. He says, not only is divorce a sin, and I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife except to be for fornicated, except for that instance, it says, and shall marry another, commiteth adultery. He says also, if a man divorces his wife, like if I were to divorce my wife and I go marry somebody else, God says that's adultery. Now look, if my wife is unfaithful to me, I do not have the right to divorce her. I'll tell you that right now. Because the Bible says, what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Now let me ask you something. When I got married, what did I say? I said, till death do us part. Now, who was I making that promise to, to her? I was making that promise to God. I was making that promise to God. I was making that promise to her. That's called a vow. The Bible says that when you make a vow to God, you must pay what you vow. He says, God hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that thou hast vowed. Now, have you ever heard of a man named Jephthah in Judges chapter 11? You may or may not know this story. In Judges chapter 11, there was a man named Jephthah who made a very foolish vow. He prayed to God and said, God, if I go out and fight this battle against the enemies of the Lord, and if I win this battle and come home safe, the first thing that meets me at my front door, I'm going to kill and offer for a burnt sacrifice to you. Now, he was thinking of his animals, because he had a big farm yard with a big gate around it. And so he figures that the first animal he sees, he says, my best animal, my pet, he said, I'll offer it as a burnt sacrifice to God. Now, it was a very stupid thing to say, because when he walked in the front door, his only daughter met him at the front door. And you know what he said? He said, I've opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. And his daughter said, do what you have to do. Do what you said you'd do. And he actually killed his own daughter to not break a vow to God. Now, that's a horrible, tragic, sad story. Of course, there's symbolism there of God offering his only son on the cross. So there's always the gospel throughout the Bible. But it's still a terrible, tragic story. I mean, my heart aches every time I read that story. Can you imagine your only child? And so here he is. He says, I've opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. I cannot go back. I cannot go back. I've opened my mouth to the Lord. I cannot go back. And then you think about it in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith, all the way from by faith Abel off unto God, a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by faith Noah, on and on through the chapter there, all the different people there. And he gets to the end and he says, and what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah. That man's listed as a great man of faith in the New Testament, because that would take a lot of faith, my friend, to kill your own daughter not to break a vow to God. Now look, don't tell me about all the reasons why divorce is OK. Don't tell me all the reasons why it's OK to break a vow to God, because lying is never OK. That's situational ethics. To tell me that you can make a promise to God and make a promise to your spouse and say, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, keep me only unto her till death do us part. Look, that only means one thing, friend. Worse is when your wife cheats on you. You understand that? Till death do us part means that one of you is dead. And that's what the Bible says is the end of a marriage. When one spouse dies, marriage is over. Now that's not popular. That's not hardly believed by anybody. But this is what the Bible teaches. I'd love for you to meet me after the service and prove me wrong on that from the Bible. I'd love for you to open the Bible and show me in the Bible where God is permitting divorce. Because he didn't say that it's OK to divorce your wife in a case of fornication. He said that if you do it because of fornication, you're not guilty of adultery. You're still guilty of breaking a vow to God. You're still guilty of lying to God by not keeping your word. So it's not that hard to understand when you look at the context of the word fornication and the word adultery are two different words. And so fornication is something that she did before they were married. Because after they were married, it would have been called adultery. So this is when he comes to her and finds out that she's been fooling around while they were engaged, or what have you. And so there's a lot of false teaching about that. Look, if you would, one last thing on this. And I wish I could show you all this, but I've got to move on to the rest of the chapter. But look at Malachi chapter 2. This is right before Matthew in your Bible. But you could look at this exact same story about Jesus and the Pharisees discussing divorce. You can look this up in Mark and Luke and John and just you get so much more aspect of it. I mean, he literally explains it every way you can possibly think. He says if a man puts away his wife and marries another, he's committing adultery. He says if a woman in the book of Luke, or I'm sorry, Mark chapter 10, he says if a woman divorces her husband, he puts his shoe on the other foot just in case you don't understand. He says if a woman puts away her husband and marries another, she's committing adultery. He said if a man puts away his wife and marries another, he's committing adultery. In Matthew 5, he said if a man puts away his wife and marries somebody else, he's causing her to commit adultery. I mean, he puts it like every way possible, just in case you don't understand. He puts it every which way. But look at Malachi chapter 2 and look at verse number 14. Yet ye say, wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou has dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one, talking about making the one out of two, the twain, become one flesh? And did he not make one, yet had he the residue of the spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. You see that? He said I hate divorce. I hate putting away. Look, I hate divorce too. I hate putting away myself. Put me in the same category with God, because he hates it too. I hate sin, and he hates sin, and I hate divorce, and he hates divorce. But before I move on from that, look at the way John chapter 4. I want to show you something. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, I've already made that mistake. Maybe I'm divorced. Maybe I'm even divorced and remarried, or whatever the case may be. Well, look at John chapter 4. See, I'm not preaching this against somebody who's already made the mistake. I mean, obviously, there's forgiveness, it's over. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, the Bible says. You know, there's no reason to beat yourself up about your past. I mean, the past is done and gone. All you have to do right now is just decide that from now on, whatever the Bible says to do, you're going to do exactly what the Bible says. And let's say you're on your fourth marriage. Hey, stay married to the fourth marriage. Stay on that fourth one, and stay with them. And then don't let anybody get talking to get into divorce, and forget about the other three. This is the one you're married to. Stay with the one you're married to. We read in Deuteronomy 24, I don't really have time to explain this, but it said that once you've divorced somebody and married somebody else, that other person, you can never go back to them. He said it's an abomination. And so, hey, if you're on the 20th spouse, just stay with it, man, for the rest of your life. And God's will, you say, I don't know if it's God's will for my life. Look, God's will is whoever you're married to right now, for you to be married to that person for the rest of your life. Don't get hung up about your past. Just say, now I know the truth, and now I'm going to stick with whoever I'm married to till death do us part. But look at this woman in John chapter 4. OK, it says in verse number 13 of John 4, Jesus answered and said unto her, Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Let's talk about salvation. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Hey, that's eternal security right there. Hey, when I drank of the water that Jesus gave me, I'm talking about real Bible salvation when I was born again. Hey, I'll never be thirsty again. Because once you drink of the water that Jesus gives you, you'll never thirst again. You say, oh, I lost my salvation. Will you tell me you got thirsty again, huh? Are you telling me that the water that Jesus gave you did not spring up in you a well of everlasting life as he said it would in the book of John? Hey, I got eternal life when I got saved, and I'm never going to be thirsty again. It has nothing to do with the sermon. I had to read it because it's such a great powerful verse about salvation. But look down a few verses. This is what he's preaching to this woman at the well. Verse number 15, the woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Look what Jesus says. Jesus saith unto her, go call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, and that thou sets truly. Look what the woman says. The woman saith unto him, sir, I proceed in the tower of the prophets. Wow, you know that? This woman had been married five times, divorced five times, and now she was living with a man that she's not married to. But if you notice this chapter, I mean, a whole chapter is dedicated to Jesus stopping everything. His disciples are wondering, why are you talking to this woman? What are you doing? He stops everything and says, I'm going to talk to this woman for the whole chapter four. And if you notice down in verse number 29, you might see why. Or 28, you might see why he spent so much time with this woman. It says, the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, she definitely knew them, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Then went out the city and came unto him. And look at verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified. He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own. Look, hey, God can use you greatly no matter what your past is. I mean, here's the one that had five husbands. She's living in fornication right now. She's living in sin. But Jesus says, I want you to help me win a whole city of Christ. You see that? Don't ever let your past, don't tell me your past is worse than this woman's past. Because if it is, I don't want to know about it. But don't tell me that your past is any worse than this woman's past. And if this woman, with her terrible past, could be used of God mightily. I mean, a whole city, two days of people getting saved. I mean, they're begging Jesus, stay here and preach to us. He keeps preaching to them. More people are getting saved, more people are getting saved. And it says that a lot of the people got saved because of her word. I mean, she personally wanted the Lord. And then it says a lot of them got saved from Jesus' word that she didn't talk to, but because she had gotten him into this city and started this whole thing. And so God still wants to use you, even if you've been divorced five times, or even if you're Elizabeth Taylor, you've been divorced eight times. Hey look, God is willing to use you. Don't get hung up about stuff like that. Don't get hung up about the past. Just worry about right now. Don't get offended by something that I preach against this. Hey, I'm not going to change the way I preach not to offend you. I tell the truth about it because my kids here are listening to it, and I don't want them to make that mistake of getting divorced. But you know what? You can be used of God, so don't let that be something that holds you back in life. Don't worry about it. Now look, if you would, at Matthew chapter 19, I'm going to move on to my next point. See, I get so tired of preachers toning down sin because they don't want to offend people. And then they preach it all soft and so open. Oh, you know, it's all right. God will forgive you, and it's no big deal, and blah, blah, blah. Hey, you know what? The Bible says, if we sin willfully, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot a son of God, and accounted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he were sanctified, an unholy thing, and had done despite him to the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. Say what? Save people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And so God says, if you sin willfully, after that you've received the knowledge of the truth. If you're a born again Christian, and you know what I just preached to you from the Bible, don't think, oh, well, I'll just go out and just get a divorce, and get remarried, and wife-swap, and whatever, and God's just going to forgive me, and God will use me like the woman at the well. No, God's going to cloud up and rain on you if you willfully disobey this book right here. And I'm not afraid to say that. There's a curse on anybody who disobeys what's in this book. And I'll guarantee you that woman at the well, yes, she was mightily used of God. Yes, she goes down in the pages of scripture. Yes, she's being preached about in 2006 as a great soul-winning Christian. She's being remembered for greatness. But I'll tell you something. I don't think that I want to trade lives with her. I'll put it that way. Because I'll bet you there were a lot of repercussions that we didn't read about in the story that she had to deal with in her personal life from having five different marriages. But I'll tell you something. She could still be used by God. And when she got to heaven, the Bible says none of her sins were even mentioned to her. It's all forgiven. But look back at Matthew chapter 19. I've got to move on. Great subject, but there's so much else in this passage that I want to get to. Matthew chapter 19. Let me just explain this quickly. The Bible says in verse number 10, his disciples say unto him that the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to marry. They were mocking what Jesus said, basically. They couldn't believe that he was really preaching that divorce was wrong. And in verse 11, he said, all men cannot receive this saying, say they to whom it is given. He says, look, hey, it's not for everybody. Not everybody wants to obey me. Not everybody's willing to sell out and really obey this book straight down the line. He says, in verse number 12 at the end, he says, he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. He says, I don't care whether you like it or not. You want to obey me, fine. You don't want to obey me, fine. But I'm telling you what the truth is. I'm telling you what the Bible is. Then look at verse 12. He says, for there are some eunuchs. Now, let me explain to you. A eunuch is somebody who is a man who's never getting married. Now, the word eunuch means sometimes a physical eunuch. Sometimes people would take a slave and actually castrate them. But it says here, and I could prove this to you from the Bible, but, well, let me read this for you. For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men. That's what I was mentioning to you. And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Now, this is not talking about a man physically castrating himself. And I could prove that to you from the Bible. I was researching this as I was studying this, and the Bible commands against that in the Old Testament. I wrote it down here. Let's see, Deuteronomy chapter 23, chapter verse number one, it says that that's a negative thing, it's bad. But what this is talking about is a person who has just chosen to just be unmarried for the kingdom of heaven. Now, read the context. You know, think about, let's just be real here. If somebody's divorced, and their spouse goes out and marries somebody else, well, according to the Bible, they have to remain unmarried. That's 1 Corinthians 7, 10, and 11. They have to remain unmarried until their spouse dies. And so he says, look, some people, they just live their whole life shingled for the kingdom of God's sake. He says, he that's able to receive it, let him receive it. I'm not gonna change the Bible for you. That's what he's saying. But in verse number 13, move on from that subject, he says, then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, suffer, little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed them. Now, what I want you to see from this part of the story here, they bring these little children to him and they want him to put his hands on them and pray for them. Now, what is this talking about? Well, if you study the Bible, the laying on of hands is a certain special ritual of putting your hands on somebody and praying for them. Now, this starts out in the Old Testament. You'll find this in the stories of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They would, Abraham put his hand on Isaac and he prayed for him. He blessed him. He told him about his future. Jacob blessed both the sons of Joseph. He put one hand on Ephraim and one hand on Manasseh. He prayed for them and he blessed them that God would use them greatly and so forth. Think about the end of the New Testament, the laying on of hands. They laid the hands on preachers that were going into the ministry. They ordained them by, the elders of the church would lay their hands on them and pray. And before I came to start this church, my pastor in Sacramento, he laid his hands on me, he put his hand on me and he prayed for me that God would bless me. He said, God, please bless Brother Steven Anderson as he goes to start this church in Phoenix. And he laid his hands on me and prayed for me. Look, the fact of the matter is he's saying, look, let little children come to me. Number one, don't say that they're too young to get saved. Jesus said, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes the child is the easiest person to get saved because they have that childlike faith. So I try to get my kids saved as young as they can, try and get kids saved. But not only that, he's saying, look, I'm gonna lay my hands on these children and pray for them because I see the potential of these children. He's saying, I wanna lay my hands on them and ask God to use them because this is the future. This is the potential. Look, when I look at these kids in the front row, I don't just say, oh, there's just three kids in the front row and I have three kids here. And I'm just preaching to the adults, right? These are the only people, these are just little kids. They don't get it, right? No, I see three great preachers in the front row right here. I mean, I see three great and powerful men of God sitting in the front row here. This is my main audience right here. These three kids right here. Because I understand what Jesus understood when he looked at these kids and said, yes, I wanna lay, get these multitudes away from me. I wanna lay my hands on these children and pray that God will use them in a mighty way. This is the future. These are the great leaders of tomorrow. These are the men of God of the future. Don't ever underestimate children. Don't be so busy with everything else in life that you don't invest in your children and say, well, I'm just so busy with this and this and this and the children are kind of a burden. Hey, look, your children are your legacy that you're leaving behind you. It's the greatest thing that you can leave behind you. And Jesus understood the value of that. But look at verse 16, I love this story. It says, and behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now, does this guy understand salvation or not? I don't think he understands salvation at all. He said, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? This guy thinks he's gotta do something. He doesn't realize it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved. He thinks he's gotta do good things. Look what Jesus says to him, I love this. And he said unto him, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God. Now, that's funny. I remember I was working on a fire alarm system in Sacramento, California. And I was working with a Jehovah's Witness guy. He was the electrician. And so we were coordinating a little bit. So he and I got to talking. And amazingly, and I find this bizarre, but this is one of the verses that they use to try to prove to you that Jesus is not God. Because he calls him good man, he says, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God. Well, I'm talking to this guy and I knew that Jehovah's Witnesses use that verse. They like to use that, which I can't even fathom. But I said to him, I said, you know what? I know that Jesus is God. I said, let me quote you a verse that tells you that Jesus is God. I said that this man, I quoted this verse, I said, yeah, this man came in and he said, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And Jesus said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, that is God. And he's like, yeah, exactly, yeah, see? See, he's not God. I said, wait a minute, are you saying that Jesus is not good? And he just froze. I said, are you saying that Jesus is not good? And he's just like, I said, because the verse says there's only one good and that's God. And he just froze up. Because he'd been taught from this verse, see, Jesus is God. Jesus said, no, don't call me good, only God's good. I said, okay, so Jesus is not good. Is that what you're saying? Are you saying that Jesus is a sinner? Are you saying that Jesus falls under the category of Romans chapter three, there's nothing to do with good, no, not one, is that what you're saying? And he just froze up and just looked at me, Jesus is like, I have never thought about that before. I mean, he just could not thought, because look, hey, he's saying to him, hey, why are you calling me good? There's only one good, it's God. He's saying, look, either I'm not good, either I'm a sinner like you are, or I'm God in the flesh. And this is the thing, people say, well, I just don't believe that Jesus is God, I just believe that he's a good man. I just believe he's a great prophet, like the Muslims. I believe he was a great prophet, just like Allah was a great prophet, and Jesus was a great prophet. I just don't believe he's got, look, he's either God or he's a liar. He's either God or he's a blasphemer, because he said, I'm the son of God. He said, I and my father are one. And so you can't ride the fence, and Jesus is saying, you can't ride the fence. Am I God or not? If I'm not God, then get away from me and why are you even talking to me? But if I am God, then you need to realize that I'm the way to heaven. And look what he says here. But if thou wilt enter into life, he's saying, if you want to have eternal life, if you want to be saved, if you want to go to heaven, he says, keep the commandments. And look what this young man says. He saith unto him, which? Okay, well, which ones do I have to do? Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother, so he gives him half the 10 commandments there, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now look, the young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth, what lack I yet? Now look, if you, let me ask you a question. Theoretically, if you kept every single commandment of God perfectly, never broke any of the 10 commandments, loved your neighbor as yourself every time, and you were perfect, as it says in the next verse, never sin, would you go to heaven? Yeah, because the wages of sin is death. So if you never sin, good night, of course you're going to heaven. But see, look what the young man says. All these things have I kept from my youth of, do you believe that? Do you believe that this young man kept all those things from his youth of? You tell me that you believe that he never stole, he never murdered, he never bore false witness, he never told a lie, he always obeyed his parents, he always loved his neighbor just as much as he loved himself? That's ridiculous. The Bible says, there is none that do with good, no, not one. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. Look, this man's problem, he came to Jesus so full of pride, saying, what do I have to do to go to heaven? Jesus said, keep all the commandments. He said, I've kept them all. See, the problem with this young man was that he didn't realize he's a sinner. He didn't realize that no, you have not kept all the commandments. If you did, you would be going to heaven, but you're not, and that's why you need me, God in the flesh, to save you. Look at the next thing that he says. Jesus said unto him, verse number 21, if thou wilt be perfect, he says, okay, you think you're perfect? You think you're perfect, don't you? Mister, I've kept these all from my youth of. If you will be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, huh? Yeah, you're not so perfect anymore, are you? Because the guy was stingy, he's exposing to him his sin and saying, no, you're not perfect. You're a tightwad, you're a skin flint. You've got all this money that you've amassed to yourself, but go sell it and give it to the poor if you want to be perfect. That's what God would want you to do. God doesn't want you to just amass all this wealth for yourself. And then he says, and come and follow me. You're not even following me. You're not following Jesus Christ. You're not perfect. Why don't you sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow me if you want to be perfect. And look what it says, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Now look, don't misunderstand the story. The man walked up to Jesus thinking that he had to do good works and keep the law to go to heaven, right? Isn't that what he thought when he walked up? He said, what do I have to do? Which commandments do I have to keep? What do I have to do? That's what he thought when he walked up. What did he think when he walked away? The same thing, right? I mean the same thing. I mean, he walked away thinking, I can't do it. I just can't be perfect. Now I'm not going to go to heaven. This guy didn't get it at all. He didn't get it on the way in and he didn't get it on the way out. And Jesus is trying to show the guy, you're a wicked sinner. Don't come telling me how perfect you are. You hypocrite, call me good master. You don't even believe in me. You don't even believe that I'm the son of God. I am God. Don't come to me and tell me how perfect you are and how good I am. He says, go sell what you have. Come follow me if you're so perfect. And he walks away thinking that he's not going to heaven because he's not a good enough person. And look what he says in verse number 23. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, verily I stand to you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. See, he's so consumed with how good he, I've known a lot of rich people and it seems like they had something in common, pride. And it's not wrong to be rich at all, but a lot of times people that are rich are prideful. I was just talking to my dad last night. I was talking to him on the phone because I was, just whenever I'm in Southern California, I'm kind of thinking about my parents' past and my grandparents. I was thinking about my grandpa. And I asked him, I said, tell me that story again. Tell me exactly how it went about my grandpa getting saved and about how that all worked. And he said that my grandpa was making $5,000 a week back in the 1950s. This is like back when people made $5,000 a year. This is in the 1950s. He was making $5,000 a week. He owned a paint store. He owned a neon sign company. He was building trailers for a company called Hot Dog on a Stick. You've probably seen those in Southern California, right? Hot Dog on a Stick? We just went there a couple days ago, but they just started out in the late 40s. And so he was building these metal trailers and he was just making money hand over fist. I mean, he had a lot of money. You know, he was drinking and other things, but he was just making a ton of money. He was unsaved and his wife was saved. And she prayed and said, God, if we just have to lose everything for him to get saved, she said, I'm fine with it. I just want him to get saved. Whatever it takes, God, do whatever it takes. And that's the kind of prayers that get answered, by the way, when you're praying for somebody to get saved. Do whatever it takes. And what happened? I mean, he had people stealing from him. He drank up a lot of the money. People defrauded him in business, ripped him off. He wasn't keeping track of his money. He ended up going bankrupt after making that kind of money. I mean, he ended up going bankrupt. And after that, he just got a job, you know, making, I think my dad said 160 bucks a week working for a neon sign company. And what happened? See, a rich man so hardly entered into the kingdom of heaven, God said. And so sometimes somebody has to be brought down to a point of humility before they can get saved. My grandpa had to be brought down from that position with all the money and the success and the easy life. He had to be brought down to where the rest of us live and say, you're not all that you're cracked up to be. Then he was receptive when the soul winners from Faith After Church in Canoga Park came by and talked to him. He was more receptive because God had brought him down a notch to where he was ready to listen to these people at his door. And if I think about just other people that I've known, and this man right here, it's the same thing. See the context of the story. This man needed to be brought down from his high horse. And that's what Jesus is trying to do. He's trying to bring him down. And because they couldn't solve this problem of his pride, Jesus isn't really going to go any further with him explaining in the gospel. Because until he gets him to realize that he's a sinner, I mean, until he gets him to realize that he's not going to earn his way to heaven, there's really no point for him to mess with the guy. And that's why the guy goes away sad. It's a sad thing. The guy's probably in hell right now because of pride. And the devil always operates on pride. But anyway, it says in verse number, let me see here where the next story picks up. In verse number 25, it says, when his disciples heard, they were exceedingly amazed and saying, who then can be saved? They said, how can anybody be saved? Because why, I'm sorry, I skipped a verse. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. I mean, he's saying, look, if you took a needle and you tried to thread an entire camel through the eye of that needle, that's how hard it is for a rich man to get saved, he's saying. And his disciples are taken aback, that's ridiculous. I mean, you're jamming a camel through the eye of a needle? He says, yes, it's easier. No, he said, no, that's easy. The rich man getting saved is hard. Threading the camel through the eye of a needle is easy. And they said, who then can be saved? And I think that's the answer that he wanted them to say. That's the point that he's trying to get across to them. You're right, it's impossible for anybody to be saved. He says, with men, in verse 26, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. He says, with God, anybody can get saved. He says, but it has to be through God. It has to be through Jesus Christ. It's not gonna be by somebody doing good works. It's not gonna be by our human efforts, trying to logic. Sometimes when we try to win people to the Lord, it just becomes a logical debate back and forth, like a math problem. He says, look, it's gonna be done by God. It's gonna be done by the power of the Holy Spirit when people get saved. And hey, it's gonna be done through the word of God when people get saved. This is the power of God, the word of God. This is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew verse and also the Greek. It's the gospel that's found in this book. And it's the words of the Lord. It says, the word of God is quick and powerful. Not my preaching, not your soul winning, but the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints in marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And that's what Jesus discerned, the thoughts and intents of this man's heart. He cut right to the taste with the word of God and said, you're not perfect. You're a sinner. You need me to be saved. You need God in the flesh. And so that's what this is saying here. It's saying, look, it's impossible for anybody to be saved because it's a supernatural act, salvation. It's through Jesus Christ. It's through putting your faith in him and his blood cleanses us from all sin, the Bible says. It's not our work, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. But also you could apply that latter part of the verse to any area of life. With God, all things are possible. With God, all things are possible. You say, well, you don't know my situation. You don't know about my family. You don't know about my five marriages that have ended in divorce. And I just don't see how things are gonna work out. Hey, with God, all things are possible. I came to the realization not long ago, and this helped me tremendously when I realized that the events that happened to me in life, really, God could stop them from happening if he wanted to. And sometimes I've looked at things financially. Sometimes I've just looked at things that happened, events at the job and so forth. And I just thought to myself, you know what? If God wanted to, God could give me such and such amount of money if I needed it. I mean, God could give it to me. And there's probably a reason why I don't have it. Maybe I just don't need it. Maybe God just doesn't want me to have it. Or something on the job is not working out right. And I just think to myself, if I pray to God and I get on my knees, I mean, I do it on the job. Things aren't going right on the job. I'll get on my knees sometimes at the job and pray that God will help me. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. And so you've got to come to the point where you pray for something. And I'm not talking about just some little ditty, but I mean, where you really prayed for something to God. And when you're done praying, you know he hears you. You know he'll give you what you ask for. And then you just say, not my will, but thine be done. And you get up off your knees with the confidence the Bible says, where you don't have to worry about it anymore. Because if God wants to answer your prayer, he's more than able to answer your prayer. And if you beg God, and if you beseech God to do something for you, and he chooses not to do it, it's for your own good. It's because he knows that that's not what you need. Look, we don't know what God wants for our lives. We don't know what God's plan for our life is. Now this is kind of cutting into next week's message. But real quick, let me wrap this up by showing you in verse 27. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and follow thee. What shall we have therefore? Now Peter asks in this question, after this meeting with the young man, and he says, we've forsaken all and followed you. What shall we have therefore? He wants to know what he's going to get for serving Jesus. And Jesus begins to tell him some of the things that he's going to give him. But look at chapter 20, verse number 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. So here he makes an agreement with these laborers. He meets them at 6 AM, the Bible says, just right at the beginning of the day in the morning. And he meets them and he makes an agreement. He says, if you go into my vineyard today, I will pay you one penny a day. Boy, he's really generous. But obviously it's a different monetary scale here. But he says, I'll pay you a penny. He says, I agreed with them. We talked about it. We discussed it. I told him, this is what you're going to get. Later on in the story, it says again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour. Did likewise about the 11th hour he went out. So all throughout the day, once at 9 AM, once at 11 and 12 noon, and then once at the 11th hour, which is 5 PM. He goes out at 5 PM. These other guys have been working in this field all day since 6 o'clock. He gets there at 5 PM and says, what is he sitting around for, go to work. And he says, whatever's right, I'll give you. He says, I'll give you, it'll be fair, whatever I give you. Let's put it that way. I'll give you, you won't be sorry. Now the only people that he agreed on the price with were the people from 6 AM. The people at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 12 noon, and 5 PM, they went out in the vineyard just kind of just trusting the guy. He said, I'll pay you, don't worry about it. Just go to work, guys. Well, at the end of the day, it says in verse number 9, it says, and when they came that were hired about the 11th hour, they received every man a penny. So they got the amount that was promised to the guy at 6 AM. So then look at verse number 10. It says, but when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny. Now look, I'm going to go into that a lot more next week and explain that story, because there's a lot of great truth in this story, and I'm going to go through it quickly. But what I want to tie in something back to chapter 19 is I want to tie in the fact that here's God saying, with God, all things are possible. Anything can happen. The sky's the limit. He says in verse number 29, and everyone that have forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land is saying, if you've done without these things, for my name's sake, he says, shall receive a hundredfold. He says, I can do anything. You give up your spouse, referring back to earlier in the chapter, you give up the fact of being married, I'll give you a hundred times that much. You give up your houses and your lands like that rich young ruler would have had to give up. He says, I'll give you a hundred times as much, because nothing is impossible with God. I can give you anything you want, and you'll get it, and you're getting eternal life. I mean, you're going to heaven. What else could you ask for? But see, Peter asks, he says, what shall we have there for? We've given up everything. Come on, Jesus. Tell us what we're going to get. Tell us what you're going to do for us. Tell us what our life is going to be like, Jesus. And in chapter 20, he goes into this story explaining, you know, that reminds me of some other people in the story, who they wanted to know exactly what they were getting. And they started at 6 AM, and they made a deal, and they got it exactly nailed down for a penny a day. But then there were those who just said, we'll just go in faith, and we'll just go. And they worked for one hour. I mean, they worked from five to six. They got paid the same amount as the guy who started at 6 AM. See, the guy at 6 AM, who it was so important for him to know exactly how it was all going to turn out. It was so important for him to know, because he didn't trust God, so he had to know exactly, what am I going to have? What shall we have there for God? Like Peter said, what are we going to get? Hey, he got less, really, than the guy who just said, hey, whatever God thinks is right, I'll take it. Hey, he got 12 times as much hourly rate, if you think about it. He worked for one hour. He got a penny. The other guy worked for 12 hours and got a penny, because I'm going to tell you something. What God has in mind for your life is far better than what you have in mind for your life. Go ahead and go ahead and go do it yourself and figure out what you want to do and do things your way. But I'm going to tell you something. What God can give you in your life, nothing is impossible with God. And if you go God's way, and if you give up everything, if you forsake it all for God and say, I don't care about houses and wives and wives and children and brothers and sisters, I'm just going to give it all to God, and whatever he pays me, hey, I'm OK with it. You'll end up better off at the end of the day. You'll end up having other people look and say, I wish I was you. I mean, that's what the people at 6 AM. I wish I would have been like that. I wish I could have worked one hour and made a penny at it. But he said, no, you were so concerned with what you were going to get, hey, that's all you're going to get. But I'm going to tell you something. You let me decide what you're going to get. I'll give you more than whatever you could dream of. So when you pray, you can ask God and say, God, why aren't you doing exactly what I want you to do? Why don't you give me this, this, and this that I ask you to do? Why don't you do what I want you to do in my life? I know what's going on. I want you to give me what I want. And then God says, wait a minute. Do you really want me to give you what you want? Or do you want me to give you something way better? I mean, my will for your life. And so we've always got to just have faith in God and say, look, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. I'm going to live for God. I'm going to give up what he wants me to give up. I'm going to do what he wants me to do. And I just believe by faith that at the end of the day, when I get my paycheck from God, that in this life, and by the way, the hundredth fold is in this life, he said, in another chapter. He said, I'll give you a hundred fold in this life and in the life to come everlasting life. He says, look, if you do what I ask you to do, if you work for me, go work today in my vineyard, he says. And if you do what I ask you to do, he says, I'll give you a hundred times whatever you give up in this life and in the life to come everlasting life. Look, we've got to come to the place where our faith is strong enough in God to where we don't always have to know what's around the corner. We don't always have to know how it's all going to work out, just every day, wake up and say, I'm going to do what God wants me to do. Today, I'm going to obey this book to the letter. Today, I'm going to be a soul winner. Today, I'm going to love God. And God, not my will, but thy be done. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for the word of God. I don't know what I would do without the Bible. I'd just be floating along through life. I wouldn't even know what the truth is. I wouldn't even know what to do with myself. I wouldn't know which direction to go, dear God. But I love to be able to go to the Bible and read it. And I can get some direction. I can get some clarity to my mind, dear God. Father, help us to just believe what the Bible says and not go with man's wisdom, not go with some cute teaching about these are the reasons why divorce is OK. These are the reasons why it's not OK, dear God. Help us to just by faith, just realize that we need to go your way in that area, dear God. Help us not to underestimate the power of the children in our lives, dear God. Help us to invest in them. Help us to take the time to lay our hands on them and pray for them and realize the potential there, dear God. Help us to realize our sinful condition, our need for God. And help us most of all to realize that with God, all things are possible. Anybody that's unsaved, hey, we can win over the Lord. Our lost loved ones, the hard cases. It can be done through the power of God. And God, help us not to think that we always have to know how our life's going to turn out and what you've got in store for us, dear God. Help us to just by faith say, hey, God, however you want my life to go, it's fine with me. Because I just trust you, and I just feel like you're going to be fair with me. I don't think you're going to rip me off, God. So whatever.