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The title of the sermon tonight is In a Straight Betwixt Two. In a Straight Betwixt Two, so you saw down there in really verse 23, but it says in verse 21, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, but if I live in the flesh as the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I whatnot. For I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more than evil for you. So this passage is obviously teaching that he's got basically two avenues. He said, I'd rather be with Christ, I'd rather depart and be with Christ, but I also need to be down here for you. And so that's the straight. Now, the word straight there is not straight like not crooked, you know, but straight, because that would have a gh in it. So when it's spelled S-T-R-A-I-T, it's talking about narrow or something that's confined, like a confined space or place. You can kind of think of the straights, the Gibraltar, you know, like the straights, like, you know, usually waterways. You kind of think of the Panama Canal would be like a straight, you know, so to speak. And so you can rename this sermon between a rock and a hard place. Okay, that's the terminology that most people know as far as when you say, now, in this case, this isn't a bad thing. This isn't something where it's like bad and bad. It's more like good and good, right? It's more so the fact that, hey, you know, you know, if I depart, I'm with Christ. If I stay here, I'm with you. So, I mean, it's kind of, you know, win-win situation. But what I really want to talk to you about tonight more so is the lose-lose situation, more so the between a rock and a hard place, so to speak. And what I want to preach on tonight is more so the fact that there are cases where you can put yourself in a situation where there's no way out. And, you know, as being a pastor and I get more questions and people, and not even from, necessarily, from members of the church here, but people email me questions and ask me about certain things. And there's always these situations that come up and there's really no good answer. And I want to talk and I'm going to give you a specific case in the Bible where there was no way out but for that person to sin. And, you know, that's what we want to make sure is that you don't get into those situations. Don't get into that case where you're in a straight betwixt two and there's only choices are to sin or a bad choice. And so, first I want you to know is that God will never put you in that situation. You know, if you're in that situation, it's not because God wanted you in that situation. It's not because God's like trying you and testing you in that situation. You put yourself in that situation and now you've made your bed so you've got to sleep in it, so to speak. And so I want to warn you tonight about the case that this can happen, that there's not always a way out. There's not always a remedy. There's not always, you know, an answer. And, you know, as much as I want to give people an answer sometimes and give them a way out and give them, you know, good news, so to speak, when it comes to the situation, sometimes there isn't any good news. And so, but go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and I first want you to see that God will never allow you to get into a temptation that you can't get out, that there's no way out or no escape, okay? But it doesn't mean you can't get into a situation where there's no way out and you can't escape, okay? It just means that God's not going to bring that upon you. You know, you think of Job and you think of other times where he puts you through trials and tribulations. God's never going to put you through something that there's no way out or that you can't escape or that you can't overcome it. But you can put yourself in a situation where that's the case. So, to put it this way, if you're walking in the Spirit and living for God and doing what God tells you to do, if you're enduring tribulations, persecutions, trials, any one of those, God's never going to allow something to be more than you can handle and he's never going to allow something where you can't get out. That's what this is teaching. So, 1 Corinthians 10. So, people take this way too far, though. And they put themselves in situations, they sin and they do something really bad and then they want to look at this as a promise, okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13, it says, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. A very famous verse dealing with the fact that he's going to always allow you to escape that temptation or give you the ability. You think of Paul with the infirmities that he had, and this is kind of different than temptations, but he had infirmities that he had to deal with and Jesus said, he besought him thrice about that and he said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And so, obviously, he knew Paul could handle it and he could deal with it even though he didn't like it. He could still deal with it and he gave him the grace, he gave him the strength in order to keep going, because when I am weak, then am I strong? And that's what he's trying to teach Paul, is keeping him humble, keeping him to the point where he's relying on God. And go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1, and another place dealing with being tempted, because God doesn't tempt you with sin. Temptations as far as, you know, he tempted Abraham or he tempted so and so. He's not going to tempt you to where he's tempting you to sin. Like, he's not the devil. And that's what James 1 is really getting across here, is that you're more so tempted by your own lust. And obviously the devil will play on that, but James 1 and verse 13, it says, Let no man say, When he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So that's the progression as far as you're enticed, you're lusts, you're tempted, when that lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So that's the progression of things. But don't say, well, God put me in this situation. God is the reason that I'm here, I'm in this certain state of being, you know. And I'm going to give you the Bible example of this, where there's a place where a man is in a situation where there's no way out but the sin. Jephthah. And so, you know, when you think about it, and I'm giving you this because I don't think there's anybody in here that's giving me, you know, like, ask me a question, I'm like, I have no idea, you know, like, what you could do there. But you may know somebody. And obviously, people ask you guys for counsel, and they're going to ask you, you know, what do you think about this? What does the Bible teach on this? What am I supposed to do? You know, in some cases, there's going to be a case where you're just going to say, I can't give you an answer. And Jephthah is a case here, and we're going to read this, but I'll give you the short of it before we read it. Jephthah went to win a battle, he wanted to win this battle. And he vowed a vow that the first thing that would come out of his house, he would give as a burnt offering. And his daughter was the first thing that came out of the house. And so, let's read it. And so he put himself in a box, he put himself somewhere where there was no way out but the sin. Judges 11 and verse 30, it says, And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth through the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. Notice verse 34. And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances, and she was his only child. Beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw her that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. This is a very sad story, and if you know the story, he ends up killing his daughter. And I'm not saying that he made the right choice, because I don't think he did, okay? If it was me, I would bear the sin on myself and take that punishment personally, then to kill your own daughter. But you see what happened here? He made a stupid vow. And think about this. I mean, who do you think is going to come out your door? Do you have a lot of, like, animals in there? I mean, like, I'm just thinking about this. Like, do you have a lot of pets? And at that time, do you want to kill your pet, too? I mean, what do you have just flowing out your door to where you're going to say, I'm going to have the first thing that comes out of the side of my door to meet me. I'm going to give us a burnt offering. So it's so foolish on top of that. But he vows this vow, and then the vow, you know, when basically God's end of the deal was brought forth, he's got to keep his end of the deal, and his daughter is the person that comes out. Do you see how stupid of a, how he put himself in a rock between a hard place? And there's literally no way out of this besides him to sin. He either breaks his vow and sins, or he kills his daughter and sins. There's no, this isn't, you know, this story, there's no way that he's justified when killing his daughter. Innocent blood, a version of the children of Israel. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 23, just so you know what the Bible teaches on this. So obviously the Bible teaches that if you're going to vow, vow, you need to pay it. And, but it also says not to shed innocent blood. So, you know, there's two commandments there that you're going to have to break one of them. And this is something that God did not put them in there. And throughout the Bible, when you see someone vowing a vow, it's always ending on a bad note. Saul vowed a vow. He said, don't want to eat anything. And then Jonathan came and ate some of the honey, and then that whole dispute came up. And just other places where people are vowing vows, and then the consequences are always horrible. Deuteronomy 23 and verse 21, it says, When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. Well, Proverbs 6, we already read this, you know, with these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven, an abomination, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. And when you read the story, it's a very sad story with Jephthah, and the fact that his daughter was a virgin, and she went up with her fellows into the mountains to bewail her virginity. And then she came down and, you know, he performed his vow. And it's a horrifying story, honestly. You know, I don't know, when it comes to judges in general, there's horrifying stories in judges. And you think of that story with Jephthah, and then you think of Judges 19 with the children of Belial. But this case, I mean, it's just, it was unneeded. Why did he vow his vow? He put himself between a rock and a hard place, he was in a strait betwixt two, and he had to make a choice. And so, I want to warn you, you know, that this can happen. That's why we're not the vow of vow. Go to Ecclesiastes 5, you know, in the New Testament, obviously Jesus says, you know, swear not at all. You know, and so, this whole idea, you know, I swear to God, you know, that's something that people say a lot. And they use that and they call God into, you know, on the table there, as far as swearing an oath. And, you know, unless you know for sure you're going to be doing that. Now, when it comes to, like, marriage, right, we vow vows. So I'm not saying that there's never a place to vow a vow. But, you need to take that seriously. You know, that you're vowing that vow and that you're going to keep that vow. And the Bible's very explicit about that. Ecclesiastes 5, verse 4, it says, When thou vows, the vow unto God, defer not to pay it. For he hath no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou has vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands. For in a multitude of dreams and many words there are also diverse vanities. But fear thou God. And so, it's obvious that basically, you know, don't allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin. You know, it talks about how a fool is known by the multitude of words right before this. And so, don't just shoot off the mouth. And this can go in your daily life. You know, like swearing to somebody, you know, I swear I'll be there. You know, no, if the Lord will, I'll be there and do this or that. That's what you should be saying because you don't even know if you're going to be here tomorrow. And so, this whole idea of like swearing this, swearing that, all that's going to do is put you in between a rock and a hard place when something happens that you don't expect or you're not ready for and then you're going to have to break a vow. And God's not going to hold you guiltless because of that. And so, we need to remember that. Go to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 34. Matthew 5 and verse 34. And this particular, I think, is where you're going to find this case a lot of times, where there's no way out but to sin, so to speak. As, you know, Matthew 5 and verse 34, it says, But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, neither by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. So Jesus is warning you, saying, don't swear by anything, not even by your own head. You know, people are, like, swearing by their mother, swearing by this, you know. He's saying, don't swear by anything and let your yea be yea. You know what that means? Is that take my word. You know what? If you say, hey, are you going to be there tomorrow? Yes, I'm going to be there tomorrow. That's yea. Or, no, I'm not going to be there. Or, no, I'm not going to do that. And just take someone's word for it. And so, that's, that's what the, you know, if I were to go, if I have to go testify in the court of law, I'm going to show them this passage where it says, swear not at all. When they say to swear on the Bible, I'm just going to say, let your yea be yea. And I think they do actually have, in the court of law, where you can say that. You know, my yea is going to be yea, you know, so to speak. And you're not swearing on the Bible, or swearing on God, that you're going to, because you can make a mistake. You know, you can make a mistake and say something that's not true, or be, you know, stumbling what you're saying or something like that. And so, just don't put yourself in that situation. Go to James chapter 5. So, this isn't in a corner. This is something that brought up a lot. And in Jephthah's case, and in Saul's case, and a lot of people in the Bible's case, if they would have just took heed to this, as far as just not bowing a vow, then they would have been a lot better off. And they wouldn't put themselves in a situation where there's no way of escape. There's no way of escape. And so, God didn't put them in that situation. It's not like God was trying Jephthah to see what he'd do here. No. He put himself in that situation because of his stupidity. Because of his dumb vow that he made. And, in the end, his daughter got killed. James chapter 5, verse 12, it says, Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yay be yay in your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Notice this warningness over and over again. Ecclesiastes, you know, you have Solomon saying it. You have Jesus saying it in Matthew 5. Then you have James saying it. And so, it's something that's over and over again to remember not to do this because it's going to put you into condemnation. And, you know, you may vow a vow or swear or something and then you fulfill it. But, in the end, what's that worth? I mean, do you get extra rewards for fulfilling a vow than if you just did it? You know what I mean? Think about it. All you're doing is putting extra pressure on yourself to do something. And you say, well, someone wouldn't take my word for it. Then, who cares? Tell them to go pound salt, you know? And the fact that if they don't take your word for it, then they're just not going to do it. And so, I'm not going to swear to my Lord and Savior on something that I don't know if I'm even going to be able to perform. And that's the case that you need to remember is that we don't know. You don't know what is on tomorrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And to say that you know what you're going to do tomorrow or the next day or even tonight is something that you can't tell. And enough to put a swear on or an oath of confirmation on something before God. And so, Jephthah did that, and he suffered the consequences for it. He was in a strait betwixt two. He was between a rock and a hard place, and he lost. And there was no, you know, if Jephthah came up to me and said, what do I do? I mean, obviously, in that case, I would tell him not to kill his daughter, you know? But in the end, I mean, I can't tell him, well, break your vow. I can't tell him go sin and break your vow. But obviously, what I would do would be different than what he did. And so, but there's another case of something that comes up because we talked about this with a marriage and divorce, and there's cases where people bring up cases. Go to Ezra chapter 9. Ezra chapter 9 is another situation, and we're going to read it, but I'll just give you kind of an overview again. And again, tonight's probably going to be a short sermon. This is just kind of, these are the two stories I wanted to show you and just kind of show you these cases in the Bible because people bring this up and say, see, you know, Ezra commanded these people, and then the congregation commanded everybody to put away their wives. And they tried to use this as like, well, then it's okay to put away your wife or to put, you know, to divorce somebody. And what you'll find here is that God never said to do it. Okay, so what they did is initially they sinned by marrying strange wives, and a lot of times in the Bible it's talking about people that are not believers, people that were worshipers of other gods, okay? And so obviously they sinned to begin with, and then they were trying to fix their wrong by putting them away. See how they're, and what's the real sticking point here is that it was the Levites and the priests that were supposed to be holy and consecrated unto the Lord, and that's where they were like renting their clothes and they're really, you know, like what do we do? And so Ezra chapter 9 verse 1, it says, Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites, for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed had mingled themselves with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes and the rulers have been chief in this trespass. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished. So you see what they did here is that when they were in captivity, and if you know Ezra, they're coming out of captivity and they're doing this, you know, Ezra chapter 2 is like all the people that are coming out of captivity, coming out of Babylon, coming back into Jerusalem, and what he's finding out is all these, the Levites and the priests and all this stuff, and the princes had all mingled with the people of the land, meaning they married people that were not, you know, of their land. And obviously this goes into the New Testament as far as being unequally yoked with unbelievers and we're going to get to that, because when it talks about that in the Old Testament, when it says not to marry, but of your tribe, you know, whoever you will, but in your tribe and of the Lord, right? That's more so talking about the fact that they need to be a believer. They need to be someone that believes in God, that's someone that's, you know, a Christian. And so that's where that comes into, and, you know, Ezra chapter 9 verse 11, it goes on with this, and it's basically, you know, Ezra's stating what God had commanded. So notice that he's stating the fact that they broke this commandment. And in verse 11 it says, Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to possess it is an unclean land, with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever, that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? What is not thou be angry with us till thou hast consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this. And so if you remember in Ezra, there's cases too where these people, they were doing the genealogy, they were figuring out who were the priests by genealogy. And there were certain people that they didn't have a record. They didn't have a record of their genealogy, and he rejected them for being priests. And then they come to this and find out that they're all mingled with the heathen of the land. And so basically they're looking at it as far as how can we even have Levites and priests when we come back into the land because they're all defiled. And I don't believe all of them were, though. That's the key here. I don't think all of them were. And what you'll find is that it never says in Ezra, like God came down and said, Thou shalt put away these strange wives. That's what you'll never find in here. You'll find Ezra and the people making that decree. And again, just because someone says something to do something and even if they're a great man of God or a prophet does not mean that they're right. And so in Leviticus chapter 21, it gives us that idea as far as the priests. And for sake of time, I'm not reading all Leviticus 21, but it's talking about the Levites and the priests and specifically Aaron and his sons. So if you understand the priestly line, the high priest and the priests came out of Aaron. So it wasn't just the Levites. It was out of Aaron. And it wasn't just the Kohathites because the Kohathites was who Aaron came out of as well. But the priests came out of Aaron. And then you'd have the Levites that would do the ministration of the tabernacle and do other things, right? And they would teach the nation the law. And basically they were like the preachers, so to speak. But Aaron particularly, he was where the priests came out of. So when we're talking about this, we're talking mostly about the priests and the high priests particularly, too. But in Leviticus chapter 21 in verse 13, it says, And he shall take a wife in her virginity, a widow or a divorced woman, or profane or in harlot. These shall he not take, but he shall take a version of his own people to wife. Neither shall he profane his seed among his people, for I the Lord do sanctify him. So that's what they're bewailing. That's why he's plucking off his beard and he's sitting astonished, because that's what the priests were supposed to be doing. And they didn't do it, obviously, because they married someone else. And that's an extreme. I mean, you think about that. They can't even marry a widow. I mean, there's nothing wrong with marrying a widow, right? But do you see the high standard that they had? And I don't believe there's anything wrong with marrying a harlot either. Obviously, if you can handle that and handle their past, but it's not inherently sinful to marry a harlot. But to marry someone that's an unbeliever, I do believe that's sinful. And obviously, God has grace, and if you're married to an unbeliever, he's not saying to depart from them. That's what 1 Corinthians 7 talks about. But what they're arguing here is the fact that they didn't fulfill this. They need to put away their wives. They need to put away their strange wives, that is. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14, it says, Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? That's what this is really about. When you're dealing with marrying strange wives, what you're going to find is the strange wife or the strange woman is dealing with, and especially with Solomon, how they're going to take your heart away from God to serve other gods. That's the whole point as far as why he's calling them strange wives. They're strange because they're not saved. And so that's what he's talking about. He's not just, this isn't this racist, you know, back in Israel's day, you know, it's just like, we only want our people. No, you can marry somebody if they're a believer. They can become, you know, a stranger can become an Israelite, and it talks about that. So it's not saying like, you know, some Ethiopian, Moses married an Ethiopian woman, and God didn't, you know, chastise him for that, even though everybody was kind of talking about that and saying he married an Ethiopian woman. So it's nothing about skin color. It's nothing about where you came from. It's the fact of what do you believe? In the genealogy of Jesus, you have Ruth, who was a Moabitess. But she said, your God's going to be my God. That's the difference. So she wasn't a strange wife to Boaz because she was a believer. And so, you know what they could have done? You know what they could have done? Is got their wives saved. How about there's an answer for you? You know, I know I'm talking about between a rock and a hard place, but maybe they could have thought about that, winning them to Christ, giving them the gospel, and then maybe you wouldn't have to put them away. But, yeah, I'll show you in Ezra chapter 10 where they actually do this. But notice when you're reading through Ezra chapter 10, where do you find, thus saith the Lord God, thou shalt put away thy wife. You don't see God coming down saying to do this. All you do is seeing them talk about it and them doing it. And so they put themselves in this box, and what it really comes down to is they wanted to be priests. They wanted to have these guys to be Levites, but they couldn't do it because of the certain situation they put themselves in. And there was no way out, but they tried to find a way out. They tried to get their way out of that. And so in Ezra chapter 10, verse 1, it says, Now when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping, and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children. For the people wept very sore, and Shekiniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God and put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law. Arise for this matter belongeth unto Thee. We also will be with Thee, be of good courage, and do it. Then arose Ezra and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear that they should do according to this word, and they swear. So I see a lot of things wrong with this. First of all, I don't remember that Shekiniah was God. Okay, Shekiniah came out and said, Hey, I got an answer to this. I know what we're going to do. And he comes up to Ezra. Do you notice this didn't even come from Ezra? This wasn't Ezra's idea. This guy came up and said, Hey, we've taken strange wives, but here's what we're going to do. And he comes in and says, Okay, we're going to put away these strange wives. Then Ezra says, You're going to all swear that you're going to do it. Didn't we already learn that lesson already with Jephthah? And so now they're boxing themselves into where they have to do it. So after they take this swear, do you see how they're in a rock between our places? They don't put away their wives. They're sinning either way they go about that. And so, but Ezra chapter 10 and verse 10, it says, And Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them, Ye have transgressed and have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do His pleasure, and separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. Now, notice they say the pleasure of the Lord, and then they said according to the law. Again, do you see where God says and puts His mark of approval on this? Actually, you don't even see where God says I was pleased with this, or God saw this and took knowledge of it. You know how it ends? In verse 44, all these had taken strange wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children. Think about that. They forsook their wives and their children for this. And so, this whole idea, you know, you gotta think about that too. You think of James and the church in Jerusalem and how he had like Paul coming and doing a sacrifice and all this other stuff. You gotta understand that even good Bible characters can make mistakes. And in this case, I believe they all made a mistake here to do this. And you don't see where they're sitting. They prayed to God and they weep to God, but again, God didn't give an answer. You don't see God giving an answer here. Why? Because there probably isn't a good answer to give them. You've sinned. You're defiled. What do you do? And so, I just want you to see that that you can come to a place where there's no way out. There's no escaping. There's no remedy. And if you think that God was for them putting away your wives, what does it say in Malachi 2 verse 16? Malachi 2 and verse 16. Obviously, you didn't want them to marry those strange wives, but once you vow that vow, you know, then you're supposed to be keeping that vow. And we see that in the New Testament when Paul talks about that, that if you're married to an unbeliever, it doesn't say to put them away. And verse 16, it says, For the Lord, the God of Israel, said that he hateth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garments said the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that ye do deal not treacherously. He hateth putting away. You know what he probably also hates? Is marrying a strange wife. But do you see how they're basically trying to choose between bad and bad? And they put themselves... Here's the thing. You know, it's kind of like this with being a pastor. You know, the people are like, Well, you know, I've been divorced or I'm remarried, and I can't be a pastor. Okay. Where is it written that you have to be a pastor? You know what I mean? Like, is that the only thing that you can do for God? Yes, you put yourself in a place where there is no way for that to happen unless that person dies, right? You know, you could have that case where, you know, the spouse that you're married to or the person that you were married to before dies, then obviously you only have one wife at that point, right? So that can happen. But at the same time, you know, how about the fact that they didn't have to be priests? You know, they had other people that were priests. They would just have to step down from that office. And so, you know, but do you want to get into that situation? You want to have all the options you can have. Don't you want to grow up and just, you know, have, Hey, here's a plethora of ways I can go for the Lord and I can just pick which one I want. Or do you want to put yourself in a situation where you pretty much just have this one way that you can go, right? You cancel out all these other options because of sins that you've committed and things that you've done in your past or, you know, that are irreconcilable. And there are cases where there's things that are without remedy. Now, one case that I think about this, and it's not necessarily choosing between one sin or another, but it's where David commits a sin and God gives him three choices. And they're all bad, okay? And go to 2 Samuel 24, and this is where he numbered the people and God was displeased with them. And when you're in the situation, you know, when you think about that, like, what if you're in a situation where there's no way out but the sin? Kind of like Jephthah, I would pick the less of two evils in that case. You know, I'd pick the one that would hurt me more than that would hurt anybody else. That's the way I would look at it personally. You know, if it was between me killing my daughter or God putting judgment upon me and killing me, I'm going to take the one where he kills me, okay? And notice the man after God's unharmed, David, and what he thought on this issue as far as he had three different punishments that he could take and notice what he chose. And so it says in verse 12, so, I'm sorry, did I give you a chapter? 2 Samuel 24 and verse 12, it says, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things, choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and told him and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies? While they pursue thee? Or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now advise and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, notice this, I am in a great strait. Isn't that what we're talking about, between a strait betwixt two, between a rock and a hard place? Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. So it was still bad. But notice his heart, he says, Let us fall into the hand of the Lord. I don't want to fall into the hand of the enemy. I'd rather have the chastening of the Lord than the wrath of the world on me. And so in those cases, I mean, there's just going to be a case where it's almost like, what punishment do you want? Do you want the belt? Do you want the spoon? Or do you want this, right? And you're kind of just picking which punishment you're getting, and you're trying to think about what avenue you want to go at. We go to 2 Chronicles chapter 36, and with the children of Israel, and with Judah here in 2 Chronicles chapter 36, there came a point where there was no remedy. There was no remedy. There was no way out. God was going to punish them, and there was no changing his mind. Repentance was hid from his eyes, so to speak. And that's where you get into Jeremiah where he says, Pray thou not for this people, for I will not hear you. Because he came to the point where there was no way out. They've gone too far. And obviously you can think about this with the reprobates, but you can think about this in your Christian walk, and the fact that if you keep pushing something, keep doing something that you shouldn't be doing, there's going to come a point where God's going to be done with it. There's going to be no remedy for it. And there's verses in New Testament that I'm going to show you that are dealing with Christians and not unsaved reprobates. And so we need to remember this is a warning. But it's also an idea as far as if someone comes up to you with, let's say, a hypothetical, or they give you an example of a situation, and you're just like, this is a sin, and this is a sin. I mean, I wouldn't advise someone to sin. So what do you say? I just say there's no remedies to that. I can't answer you in that. That's going to be between you and the Lord and how that goes out. You've got to pick your punishment, so to speak, because there's no way out from that. And so in 2 Chronicles 36, verse 15, it says, And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up at times and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. This makes me think of Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 1, it says, He that being often reproved, hardened at his necks, shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. So you always want to think that there's a remedy, there's a fix, there's something you can tell them that's going to help, or you're going to be able to fix the situation, there's a way out. There's not always a way out. God will never put you in a situation where there's no remedy. He'll never allow you to go into temptations or trials or tribulations or persecutions where there's no remedy or where there's no escaping. He'll never do it. He promises that he'll never do it. He'll never give you that place where you don't have the strength to get out of it. But you can put yourself in a situation where there's no way out, where there's no remedy, where there's no escaping. And so it's a warning, because sometimes I think we look at these promises and say, well, I'm untouchable. Well, you can mess that up, but just remember that God's never going to lead you into that. And don't ever tell me that when you're looking at Jephthah, don't tell me that God was the reason that he was in that situation, because it wasn't. He put himself in that situation. Go to James chapter 5. James chapter 5. And it can go as serious as dying as a Christian, to where God will take you out of this world. And that's where the depths can go. Even though you're a child of God and you're saved, and we kind of talked about it when we were talking to the lady that we were talking to about solvening, because when we preach eternal security, they always come at you, and you're saying that I can go out and do anything. I can do whatever I want, and there's no consequences. Yeah, no, there is consequences. You're not going to go to hell if you believe on Jesus Christ. But you could die. You could have sickness. You could be like some of these kings that had a sickness in their bowels until their bowels gushed out, pretty much, and then their feet were diseased and all this stuff. You know what? That's not the way I want to go out, my friends. Actually, that's the last way I want to go out, right? Shoot me in the head at that point. But what I'm saying with that is that you want to have an expected end. I want to go out fighting. I want to go out where it's expected. It's something that is not horrific death, to where it's like no glory to God. But James 5, verse 19, it says, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. Notice it says, Brethren, if any of you do err and one convert him. He's talking to brethren. He's talking to believers saying, if one of you err, basically, if one converts him, then you save the soul from death. And we're not talking about eternal salvation here. We're talking about physical salvation. We're talking about your physical death that you would occur in. That makes sense when you look at 1 John, chapter 5. Go to 1 John, chapter 5. This is the last thing I'm going to show you. 1 John, chapter 5. 1 John, chapter 5, verse 16. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. Do you know there's a case and he says don't even pray for it. There's certain sins that a believer can commit to where God will just take you out. How about Saul? When he killed 85 priests that were wearing a linen e-fog and he did all that other stuff and tried to pursue David. And then he went to a witch at Endor and went to necromancy and all this other stuff and God said, tomorrow you and your sons are going to be with me. And he died. But he was in heaven. I mean, Saul was a prophet of God. The Spirit of God came upon Saul more than anybody else in the Bible besides Samson. But he obviously went too far with God to where there was no remedy. There was no way out. As much as he wept and didn't want to eat and was just sore afraid about what was going to happen, there was no way out. And so just a warning to us, you know, the fact that don't think that you're untouchable as far as the fact that we can definitely get ourselves into situations where there's no way out. There's no way out but sin. There's no way out but punishment from God. And God will never allow you to go into that. So if you're coming to church, going soul-winding, reading your Bible, doing everything that you need to be doing, just stay on that path that you need to be on, God's not going to allow you to get into those situations. And so, but if you get out of church and you get out of reading your Bible and you start going off and just living for the pleasures of this life, you could end up getting into those situations where there's no way out. I mean, think about it. I mean, if you commit adultery, you've ruined your life. You've ruined your marriage. You've ruined everything. And I'm not saying that you can't reconcile but good luck. Good luck reconciling that. You know, we actually read that in Proverbs chapter 6 where you get a wound and all this stuff. It's basically, I mean, how do you fix that? And so that's something that we need to remember is that there's some cases where there's no remedy. Sometimes you can get in a straight betwixt two. And where do you get out of that? But do you know where you want to be? You want to be where for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And the fact that I'm in a straight betwixt two, having a desire and a pardon to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. That's where you want to be. That's a good straight to be in. That's in a good little space that you want to be in where you're saying, you know, over here, I'd go to heaven. Over here, I'm going to be with my friends and family and, you know, with fellowship, with believers. That's a win-win. You don't want to be in a case where it's between two sins or in a case where it's between two punishments. And so you need to stay in with the Lord and let Him direct your paths. If you let Him direct your paths and directed everything that you do through the Word of God, you won't get into those situations, and He's promising you that, that He will not let you be tempted above that. You are able. And so just a warning to you, but also, if you have anybody that gives you some of these weird, kind of crazy situations, you know, and you're just like, I don't... I mean, there is a case where you're going to be like, there's no answer. I have no answer for you. And that's okay. I mean, just know that that can happen because with Jephthah, that would be the case where I wouldn't have an answer for him. There's nothing... You're going to sin. And there's no way out. So let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You for today. And thank You for everybody that came out. And Lord, just thank You for the soul-winning efforts and just the baptisms and just all the great things that You've been doing with Mountain Baptist Church. I pray that You'd help us and guide our steps in the ways of the Lord and, Lord, that we'd never get into a situation where we're between two sins or between two punishments, Lord. I pray that You direct our paths in the way of righteousness and help us to always be serving You and that we'd have an expected end. And, Lord, we love You and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.