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Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab a song book. And let's turn in our hymnals to song 245, The Old Account Was Settled. 245, The Old Account Was Settled. Song 245, The Old Account Was Settled. Sing it out. There was a time on earth when in the book of heaven, An old account was standing for sins yet undergone. My name was at the top and many things were gone, I went unto the keeper and sold on the go. On the go, on the go, yes the old account was sold on the go. And the rapids came to beg or he washed my sins away, When the old account was settled long ago. The old account was hard and moving everyday, For I was always sitting and never tried to pay. But when I looked ahead and saw such pain and woe, I said that I would settle, I settled on the go, On the go, on the go, yes the old account was settled long ago. And the rapids came to beg or he washed my sins away, When the old account was settled long ago. And in the happy home where Satan stole my love, I'll sleep in empty story and raise the door as long, I'll not forget that love for fate is white as stone, Because I came and settled and settled on the go, On the go, on the go, yes the old account was settled, On the go, yes the old account was settled long ago. And the rapids came to beg or he washed my sins away, When the old account was settled long ago. Oh sinners, trust the Lord, confess the modern sin, For lust and good provide entry to entering, And then if you should get a hundred years to go, Up there you'll not regret it, We settled on the go, on the go, on the go, Yes the old account was settled long ago, And the rapids came to beg or he washed my sins away, When the old account was settled long ago. Amen, let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day and the opportunity to be in church. And we thank you so much for salvation. It's just something you just settle by believing in your Son, Not something we have to work for. And just pray that you bless the service, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Alright, for our second song, we've got a song, 274, Come Unto Me. 274, Come Unto Me. 274, Come Unto Me. 284, Come Unto Me. Hear the blessed Savior calling me a breast, Oh He had you laid and come to me at rest, Come no longer Terry, I alone will bear, Bring me every bird and bring me every care, Come unto me, I will give you rest, Take my open water, Give me every glass, I am weak and lonely, Come and trust my life, Come, my hope is easy, And my burden's light, Are you disappointed? Walk from here and there, Cracking chains of doubt, And lowing down with fear, You unholy feeling, Sparkling in your breast, Praying your grace to Jesus, He will give you praise, Come unto me, I will give you rest, Take my open water, Give me every glass, I am weak and lonely, Come and trust my life, Come, my hope is easy, And my burden's light, Stumbling on the mountains, Dark as sin and shame, Stumbling toward the pit, Of hell's consuming claim, By the powers of sin, We move in and oppress, Hear the temper-shepherd, Come to me at rest, Come unto me, I will give you rest, Take my open water, Give me every glass, I am weak and lonely, Come and trust my life, Come, my hope is easy, And my burden's light, Have you my temptation, Oft and confident, Has a sense of weakness, Fought to stress within, Christ will sanctify you, With your strength as best, In the Holy Spirit, He will give you rest, Come unto me, I will give you rest, Take my open water, Give me every glass, I am weak and lonely, Come and trust my life, Come, my hope is easy, And my burden's light. Good morning, thank you so much for coming to the Sidfast Baptist Church. If you don't already have a bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high. One of our ushers would like to come by and get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage, and this one's a pretty easy one, so I expect to give away a lot of ice cream this Wednesday, alright? All you youngsters. Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times. We also have church stats down below on the right. We have our list of expecting ladies. Please keep all of them in your prayers. We also have a prayer list. If you would like to be added to our prayer list, please just submit either an email to SteadfastBaptistKJV or at gmail.com, or you can fill out a communication card, and just slip that right into the offering plate. If you need a communication card, if you're a first time visitor or you haven't filled one out before, ask one of our ushers, and we'd love to give you a communication card. Also we have on the back, we have some upcoming events. We have the Waco Texas Soul Winning Marathon. There's a sign up sheet over here on the cabinet. There's also the Soul Winning Seminar that's going to be happening in March. It's March 24, 25, 26, and essentially it's going to be soul winning during the day, but in the evenings, we're going to have kind of a dinner slash workshop. I'm hoping that we'll feed you physically and hopefully a little bit spiritually. It's going to be for all varying levels of experience when it comes to soul winning. In fact, we would love to have very experienced soul winners to help participate in the seminar, because the goal is going to be to talk about ways to improve soul winning and how to do soul winning, and then afford people the opportunity to kind of work at their tables with soul winners in a comfortable environment learning how to go soul winning, improving soul winning. Honestly, I like going soul winning with different people or hearing different people give presentations, because it helps me come up with better ideas or better ways to communicate and everything like that, and we just end up sharpening each other and just getting better at soul winning. That is going to be the goal. It's going to basically be Thursday evening, Friday evening, and then Saturday morning will be the workshop seminar aspects, and then we'll be doing soul winning during the day Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday afternoon. So even the locals, even if you have to work, you can still show up in the evenings, participate with us, and then hopefully maybe on Saturday also go soul winning, and then people that come out of town. We'd like to invite everyone to it, so hopefully we'll have people come out of town that want to go soul winning with us, and so I'm really excited about it. April 29th, we're doing a homeschool field trip. It's going to be the Fort Worth Zoo. You have to have just at least one child that you're homeschooling five years or older. We have the May 21st Austin, Texas Soul Winning Marathon. We also have the conference date. One other thing that's not listed here, but Pure Words Baptist Church is going to be having a soul winning marathon in College Station again this year, and it's going to be the week right after our soul winning seminar. It's April 2nd. Let me make sure. Since I don't have it written down, I just want to double check. Yes, April 2nd. So if you also want to go to College Station, so lots and lots of soul winning opportunities that we're going to be having, and we went to College Station about two years ago or something like that, maybe three years ago, and it was really receptive, and so I'd really encourage you if you know anybody or you're near that area, it's a great area to go soul winning in as well. So that's pretty much all I had for announcements this morning. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. We're going to go to 396, So Little Time. 396, So Little Time. 396, So Little Time. So little time, the harvest will be over. Our reaping done, we reapers taken home. Report our work to Jesus, Lord of Harvest, and hope He'll smile and that He'll say, well done. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us the souls to win. Hope and to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to break some sinner in. How many times I should have strongly pleaded. How often did I feel too strictly born. The Spirit moved, oh had I bled for Jesus. The brain is full and lost was not reborn. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us the souls to win. Hope and to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to break some sinner in. Despite the heat, the ceaseless toil of hardship. A broken heart or those we cannot win. Misunderstood because we're off the cooler. Still no regrets we'll have but for our sin. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us the souls to win. Hope and to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to break some sinner in. A day of pleasure or of ease the friendship. A house or car or garment spare or fame. We'll all be trash when souls are brought to heaven. And then how sad to face the slacker's blame. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us the souls to win. Hope and to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to break some sinner in. The harvest wide with reapers who is wasting. And many souls will die and never know. The love of Christ, the joy of sins forgiven. Oh let us weep and love and pray and go. Today we reap or miss our golden harvest. Today is given us the souls to win. Hope and to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to break some sinner in. The Bible reads in Matthew chapter 19. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye 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. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, comitteth adultery, and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. And he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. 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, and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. 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 thence. And behold, one came and said unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto them, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? 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, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. And when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto 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. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee, what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, he also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Let's fire our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for Matthew chapter 19, and for the truths that are in this chapter. Lord, I pray that you would bless the sermon this morning, and fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit. Soften hearts in the room today so that we can accept this message, and apply it to our lives, and walk out of this building of better Christians. I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I'm doing a little bit of a sermon series, and it's on hard-to-hear sermons. And so this morning's sermon is on a topic that, literally, the Bible, when Jesus is talking about it, describes it as one of the most difficult sayings, or one of the most, you know, unpopular things that someone could be taught on. But look what it says in verse 11. It says, But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. So Jesus Christ just clearly makes it known that this particular doctrine, or this particular teaching, is just not popular. People don't want to hear what the Bible has to say on this issue. And in fact, most churches today will not preach what I'm going to preach to you this morning. And in fact, even independent fundamental Baptists today are very screwed up on this particular doctrine. And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Divorce and Remarriage. Divorce and Remarriage. Now, I just want to say this first before I get into the sermon so you don't get confused. I'm not mad at you if you've been divorced or remarried. You know, there's actually lots of people here that probably have already been divorced and remarried. And here's the thing. I'm not mad at you. You're welcome to come to church. You know, we're all sinners at the end of the day. But I'm also not going to hold back from the damage and the sin that's evident from divorce and remarriage. Okay, and I'm not going to hold back from what the Bible clearly says on this subject. And so, you know, I'm not here to just condemn people. I just want to help people realize the grievousness of this sin and the reason why they should not ever divorce or especially remarry after divorce. But look what it says in verse number 3. The Bible says, The Pharisees also came on him, tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Now, here's the thing. If the Bible starts out with the Pharisees trying to tempt Jesus, there's got to be an ulterior motive here. They're not really sincere. They're not just like, hey, I just want to ask, you know, what do you think about divorce, whatever. They're trying to trap Jesus. They're trying to twist, you know, his words or confuse him with the word of God. And it says in verse number 4, And he answered and said to them, Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall the man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Now, you know, what's interesting is Jesus points out that important foundational doctrines are actually established in the book of Genesis. Because if you think about what he's saying here, he's saying, hey, right at the very beginning, God already established the important doctrines of marriage and the fact that a man would leave his father and mother, he would cleave to his wife, and they are one flesh. And now that they've been joined together as one, you're not allowed to separate that. You're not supposed to separate that. This is God's intentions for marriage. Verse 6, Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So what does Jesus say about marriage? He says, let not man put asunder. It's very clear. That's not unambiguous. He's just saying there's not a reason for man or woman to, you know, basically be separated. God's done this. Why would we think that we're better than God? If God's joined something together, who is man to come and say, well, let's put that asunder or let's divide that or let's get rid of this. If God's put something together, we need to abide by that, you know, essential agreement that God has made. So then in verse 7, this is the Pharisees responding. They say to them, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? Now, here's the thing. It's almost like the Pharisees are atheists. Because if you think about it, what Jesus did is he literally showed what God had to say on this particular subject and this particular issue. And when they say, well, then why did we have divorce? It's almost like they're using that to throw in the face of God's doctrine. Because there's no inconsistencies with the Bible. It's not like God has a bunch of contradictory, you know, commandments or ideas or anything like that. So they're really not mocking Jesus. They're kind of mocking the Bible and they're mocking God here whenever they ask this kind of foolish question. And there's a lot of questions that people ask about the Bible that are foolish, meaning that they don't actually want an answer. They're just trying to make the Bible look bad. That's their whole goal. Now, he says in verse 8, he saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wise. But from the beginning it was not so. So Jesus says, hey, yeah, that command was given, but guess what? It's because you guys are not right with the Lord. It's basically like a commandment of just like you doing something wrong or how to behave yourself in a bad situation. But it's not a suggestion. You know, just because something's lawful does not mean it's a suggestion. It does not mean it's something that you should do. You know, according to the law in Texas, you can drink a certain amount of alcohol and still legally drive. But that's not a recommendation. It's not saying like, hey, I know that you can drink some alcohol and drive, so let's all get to the very top of that limit. Let's all drink a bunch of alcohol, and as long as we're just under that limit, then let's go drive. Now, it's still going to have a negative impact. It's still a wicked thing to do. The Bible says you're not even supposed to look upon the wine, okay, when it's red, when you give it this color in the cup. But when it comes to divorce and remarriage, just because there is a commandment saying, here's how divorce works and here's the rules associated with divorce, it's not saying like, oh, and by the way, that's a great thing to do. Or maybe you should try it out whenever, you know, you don't like your marriage or something like that. In fact, in verse 3, if you think about the original question, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? So they're just saying, isn't every reason legitimate? And he's saying no reason. And then they're like, well, what about this provision? And he's like, that's just because you're hard-hearted. You're hard-hearted, you don't have a tender love for your spouse, and he allowed them to have a specific clause for divorce. Now, it says in verse 9, And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commiteth adultery. And whosoever marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. And his disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. Now, notice how his disciples interpret this. The fact that marriage is permanent, they're like, well, let's not even get married. They're like MGTOWs or something. I mean, this is your first group of MGTOWs, men going their own way, being like, oh, man, you mean I have to say I do? I have to say till death do us part and actually mean it? Yeah, that was the whole point of saying it. What would be the point of going through all the hoopla? I mean, most wedding ceremonies are, you know, a lot of money, a lot of planning, a lot of effort. The lady gets the dress, the guy puts on the tux, you get all these people to show up, you get all these witnesses. I mean, can you imagine making any other vow in front of all the people that you care about the most so that you can just break it later? Like, what would be the point of that? Like, the whole point of gathering everybody together and all the people that you care about to be their present, for you to pledge your undying love for this other person is so that you actually keep that vow. And you're not even doing it just in front of all men, you're doing it in front of God. You're ultimately pledging your allegiance to this person, your love for this person, till death do us part. God is, you know, supposed to be present in this ceremony, this sacred ceremony of marriage, which God created, God instituted, and then for you to just go back on it, it makes no sense. It's illogical. Go to Matthew, chapter number five, Matthew, chapter number five. Now, in your Bible, it said that the only exception for divorce was fornication. Fornication is relations with a person that you're not married to. So it's actually a very specific clause that the Bible brings up, and we're going to go in the Old Testament and just look at that briefly, but it's not saying adultery, because after you get married to someone, you're supposed to stay married to them, period. There is no exception. The only exception that's given by the Pharisees is the idea of what's kind of considered an annulment in modern-day terms, where there was some kind of a fraud, or there was some kind of a deceit, or something that improperly happened, and the marriage is kind of null and void right on the onset. That's really the only provision that the Bible provides for, okay? And I'm going to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But if we just take Jesus at his word, he said, let not man put asunder. He didn't say, like, well, there's all these reasons, you know, whatever. He just, like, don't do it. Never do it. And I've preached other sermons and other messages, but a simple way to phrase this is just never divorce. Just never divorce. It is the right doctrine. It's what God actually teaches. Now, here's another place where it's brought up. Matthew 5, verse 31, So not only is there the sin of divorce by breaking your vow, but also there's the sin of committing adultery when inevitably the parties are going to end up being with someone else. Either getting remarried or committing, you know, committing acts with another person that they're not married to, which would also be adultery. And so it's just a compounding sin issue. And Jesus is saying, hey, I know you heard, like, about this divorce thing, but I'm saying don't divorce at all. And if you do, you're committing adultery when you get remarried or you're with another person. And so from Jesus' perspective, think about it this way. If I go out and I get a legal divorce in the state of Texas, okay, I'm not married. And in the eyes of Texas, I can go and get married to another person. And in the eyes of Texas, I haven't done anything wrong. I have not committed adultery. But notice what Jesus said. I committed adultery. Now, what's the only way to be able to commit adultery? If you're married. You cannot commit adultery unless one person in the relationship is married. Okay. It doesn't take both. You could be single and sleep with someone that's married, and that's adultery, too. Okay. But if you think about it, why would Jesus Christ classify this as adultery? Because in his eyes, you're still married. It doesn't matter what paperwork you signed. It doesn't matter what kind of document you labeled up or whatever. From God's perspective, that person is still married. That's why it's still adultery. That's why you're just supposed to never get divorced. Because even though you may be able to break it theoretically, you can't break what God's already established and already put together. God already put the man and the woman together, and they're together till death do us part in God's eyes. So even though you go and get this divorce thing or whatever, does not nullify it. The only exception is given in the Old Testament, and I'll talk about that. But almost every divorce in America today is not ever following that particular procedure or that particular situation whatsoever. And because there's so much rampant divorce in America, there's so many evil and consequences that come from it. What I'm preaching is not a rare thing. In fact, it's really just sad how prevalent divorce is in our country. I looked at some statistics. In the US, the divorce rate is amongst one of the highest in the world. So actually, the United States is one of the worst countries when it comes to divorce. Okay. It says that there's over 750,000 divorces in the US every year. 750,000 divorces. Most Americans who file for divorce do so between January and March. Hence, we're having a sermon in January. All right. We're going to try and lower that number. Okay. I looked at, there's so many horrible things. I just picked out a couple of highlights. But let me just give you some other facts. Okay. Just fact. Remarriage increases the risk of divorce. According to the Census Bureau, the rate of divorce increases in relation to how many times you marry. This means the more you marry, the more likely you are to divorce. That's just facts. Divorce rates vary dramatically from state to state. Now, I know what you're thinking, because this is what I was thinking. I was thinking, like, of the states where there's probably the most divorce. Let me just read for you. The lowest states of divorce are Illinois and Louisiana. Okay. The highest are Nevada and Oklahoma. Those Oklahomans, you know what, they don't have anything to do up there. They're so bored, they just get divorced and remarried or whatever. It's because they put beans in their chili and it's just causing all kinds of problems in their marriage. I'm trying to fix it. Okay. The average length of a marriage in the U.S. is 8.2 years. Isn't that sad? Only 8 years. People are 75% more likely to end their marriage if a friend is divorced. They're even more likely if you surround yourself with other divorced people. I guess misery loves company. Second, marriages have a higher rate of divorce. In fact, the first marriage likelihood of divorce is between 40 and 50%. Okay. So, almost 40 to 50% of all first marriages end in divorce. That's sad. The second marriage, 67%. The third marriage, 75%. I mean, you would think, like, oh, we screwed up the first and the second time. I got it the third time. No, no, no, no. They've already shown a pattern of the fact that they don't even know what marriage is anymore. They just, and look, I'm not trying to condemn people that have made this mistake. You know, why don't you bring that second marriage statistic down if you're there, or a third, or I don't know where the fourth and plus, you know. You guys aren't in this category. Okay. But, no matter who you're with now, just stick with it. Just stick with it. How about this lie that comes from the world? Can impact your risk of divorce. Now, here's the thing. I've heard this from lots of people. I've heard young people tell me, my parents suggested that I live with someone before I get married to them. Or, a lot of people just say, well, I want to live with her first before, you know, we end up deciding if we're going to get married or we're going to test the waters or whatever. That's a bad idea. Have you ever had a roommate? You start hating your roommate as soon as you start living with them. I've never had a friend and then started living with them and liked them more. Okay. You're always going to like your spouse a little bit more from afar. Okay. The dating phase was the best phase. Okay. We all got it. You get married and you have to survive. Okay. No, I'm just kidding. But, cohabiting is such a foolish idea. In fact, statistically, couples who do not cohabit before getting married are less likely to obtain a divorce within the first 20 years. So, by cohabiting, you're only increasing the chance of you divorcing that particular person. And, here's why. Let me explain why. Because they're already showing that they have a low moral standard and that they really are okay with breaking rules. And, people that are okay with breaking rules are okay with breaking rules. I don't know if you understand this. So, someone committing fornication and doing wickedly, it's not going to be a giant leap for them to do it again. And, the person that's already committed divorce, they've already shown they're capable of divorcing someone. So, of course, when you get a mix of two people that have already divorced and then they get married, it's just like statistic anomaly if they don't. This is why it's so foolish. Here's the number one reason for divorce in America. I'll give you some other reasons. Most people think it's money. That's a big fight. Infidelity. People would think that. Here's the number one reason. Incompatibility. What? Incompatibility? Dude, you're a guy and she's a girl. It works. Now, here's the thing. Men and women are different. I get that. But, you know what? That's good. That's a great thing. And, you know what? It's the world that constantly tells you, oh, I got to find the one. I got to find that special one that, you know, is going to meet all of my needs and all the butterflies and whatever. And, you know, Hollywood's always chasing that. It's interesting how they never find it. And they're always singing, you know, about how they can't find it. There's this song that I grew up listening to and I used to like John Mayer. I still do, I guess. Here's the thing. He always sings a song called like perfectly lonely. And he just sings about how he's fine just being lonely his whole life because he can't ever get a relationship to work. And, I mean, the dudes dated like every attractive girl you can imagine in Hollywood. Why can't he find love? Because he doesn't know what love is. This world doesn't know what love is. And the majority of songs today and music and Hollywood and all this stuff, they're always talking about finding the one and getting that love or whatever. But here's the thing. They don't know what love is because love is not feeling good about the person. Love is choosing to do good to someone when they don't deserve it. That's what real love is. And that's what real marriage is. You know, when you're standing there pledging your allegiance to your spouse, you're saying I do. You're saying till death do us part. What you're actually saying is I don't care what you do. I'm going to choose to love you. If you suck tomorrow, I love you. If you're poor tomorrow, I love you. If you're sick tomorrow, I love you. If you do something horrible, I love you. And you know what? That's what Jesus does to us when we get saved. He's the bridegroom. Jesus Christ literally, he just looks at you and says, you know what? I'm going to take you to heaven. I'm going to love you. And you're sitting here like what if I drink or what if I screw up or what if I stop going to church or what if I, you know, what if I even took my own life? And he's like I'll still love you and I'll still take you to heaven and I'll never leave thee, I'll never forsake thee. That's the picture of what marriage is supposed to be like. And that's what love is. How about think about love for God so loved the world. Now here's the question. When did the world love Jesus? When did the world love God? When did the world deserve the love of God? At no point in time. So what is love? Love is choosing to do good to someone when they don't deserve it. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even when we didn't deserve it, Jesus did good unto us. And here's the thing. Why do people in their relationships think that they can only treat their spouse well when they deserve it? Where did that concept ever come into play? From Hollywood. From the lies of the devil. You know what? God did good unto people when they didn't deserve any of it. When they were murderers and liars and thieves and whores and whoremongers and every evil thing you could ever imagine, Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of them. Why can't you then do good unto your spouse tomorrow when they're a bad spouse? You know what? The only person that's ruining your marriage is you. That's why divorce happens. America has the third highest divorce rate in the world. The number one is Maldives and number two is Belarus. I don't even, I mean these are so, they're so, you know, small that they're probably an anomaly. Really, it's America when it comes to major, you know, countries, large countries, developed countries and it's sad because since there's so much divorce and there's so many children that have been raised in this situation where the parents have been divorced, it's caused them to hate marriage. It's caused them to despise marriage. It's caused them to have this attitude of the disciples and they say, well, it's not good to marry. Right? You know what? The Bible teaches that marriage is a good thing. The Bible says in Proverbs 18, who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. Go to Malachi chapter 2, go to Malachi chapter 2. The Bible also says in Proverbs 19, houses and riches are the inheritance of fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord. Do not give up on marriage. Do not teach your children to give up on marriage. The Bible says rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let me tell you something. Marriage is hard. Marriage is difficult. Marriage is frustrating. But you know what? It's honorable and all. It's honorable and all. Because you're literally trying to emulate the love that God has for people. You're saying, okay, you know what? I'm going to choose to love somebody regardless of what they do. And there's nothing more honorable than that. How could you say there's anything more honorable than saying I choose to love you no matter what happens, no matter what evil befalls us, no matter how you treat me, I'll just choose to just love you back and do good unto you because that's the promise and the oath that I make. You know, there's some relationships in the Bible, there's some marriages that are horrible. And I mean the worst. Hosea has to marry a woman that's a literal harlot, a literal whore, and she literally whores against him multiple times. He has to literally pay for his wife not to be a whore against him. Now, I'm just being honest with you. Of all the sins that my wife could commit, adultery is by far the worst. It's not even close to any other thing. I mean if I were to say like what would be the worst case scenario in a relationship, to me it would be for my wife to be with another man. And you know, it's equal. I think that men and women, you know, obviously are both going to be grieved by this. But for some reason, a man, when it's his wife, I mean it's literally, this is the rage of a man. Like, I mean it's just there's something inside men. You know, a lot of women had to suffer through multiple wives and all that kind of stuff. But like men, they can't tolerate it. Like women for some reason, I'm not saying it's not bad for them or it's not equivalent, but I'm just saying women tolerate it. But like men just can't tolerate that. Like when do you see in history just a wife with, like a woman with a bunch of men, you know, as her husband or whatever. Like that's not going to happen. That's not realistic. There's just something inside a man that just is like, it just, you want to literally kill everyone. Okay. That's how I feel. All right. I think you just, you're not going to be content. The fact of that happening is just so grievous. Okay. Like my wife committing all kinds of other sins and stuff like that. I wouldn't be that big. You know, I would be like, okay, whatever. You know, you kill somebody, whatever. You know, I still love you. Depends on who, you know, might like her more. But if it was, but if it was, you know, adultery, I mean, that's just so grievous. But you know what, Hosea had to do it. And, you know, this is what I always hear. God wouldn't want me to be in this relationship. Well, God's the one that put you in the relationship. He joined you together. Oh, well, God wouldn't want me to suffer. Well, then why did he ask Hosea to do it? Well, God wants me to be happy. When did he say that? It's the sufferings of Christ. We're supposed to be persecuted for righteousness sake. You know, he's like, blessed are you that mourn. Oh, remember that happy section in the, no, I don't remember that. We get the joy of the Lord and I get that, you know, and God wants us to have joy from our relationships and from church and from him and everything like that. You know what, God doesn't promise us happiness every moment of our lives. That's a silly idea. Okay. And, and really, you know, the happiness of this world's fleeting. It doesn't really satiate the soul. The joy of the Lord, the peace of the Lord is what actually gets you through the difficult things in your life. Not this temporary fleeting happiness because otherwise the celebrities would be the happiest people on earth. Walt Disney World would be the happiest place on earth. Yet every family man I ever see there looks so miserable because he just lost thousands of dollars, it's hot, there's faggots everywhere, I mean, there's just all these little animal creatures that are just disguised, it's just faggots, described, you know, dressed up like little animals because they like to be in animals or whatever because they're beastophiles too. And then they like to go around and prey on children. Look, this is just a known fact, my friend. The sodomites love these little kid amusement parks and everything like that. It's not the happiest place on earth. No, it's miserable. You usually only get like five minutes of actual fun when they're anyways because you stand in line for two hours and then get to ride a roller coaster for like 30 seconds. And it's like, wow, that was like, you know, and then you go do it again because you're glutton for punishment. This is marriage, no I'm just kidding. We have to realize that God gave us the institution of marriage and it's actually a beautiful thing. But it's hard. It's the hardest thing you'll do, you know, is to love another person unconditionally, okay? But at the same time it's worth it and there's so many benefits of marriage, so many blessings from marriage and, you know, when you marry someone in the Lord, you can reap a lot of rewards. But even if you didn't, even if you're Hosea and you kind of married this whore or whatever, you know what, it just still shows you have a lot of character that you can love someone even when they don't deserve it. You're emulating what Christ had to do. You're happening to show what Christ, and you're still keeping your vow. And look, the Lord does not like divorce. Look what it says in Malachi chapter 2 verse 16, for the Lord the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away. Notice he didn't say like, oh, that's cool. Good idea. He hates it. So God doesn't like this sin. It's not a good thing. Go to Deuteronomy 22. Go to Deuteronomy 22. Can you explain this, you know, theoretical provision that God had given in the law of Moses about divorce? Because the word divorce is found in your Bible. It's found in the law of Moses. But when we run into Jesus in the New Testament, he's not advocating it. He's not trying to encourage people to do it. He doesn't like it. And if you read the parallel passage in Mark, because Jesus has said, let not man put asunder, right? Then they bring up the divorce, okay? Well in Mark, after Jesus Christ explains it about the divorce thing, this is what he says. I'll just read a little bit. You're turning to Deuteronomy 22. He said, the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for man to put away his wife tempting him? And he answered and said to them, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorce for men to put her away. And Jesus answered and said to them, for the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept, but from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, so then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God adjoined together, let not man put asunder. And I love the way this is worded, because if you think about it, in Matthew, Jesus says, not man put asunder, then they bring up divorce. Then you could say like, oh, well I guess that's the exception. But in Mark, he brings up the divorce and then even after that, he doubles down and says, let not man put asunder. So that didn't change his opinion. That didn't like say like, oh, well I guess there is this, you know, thing or whatever. He's just saying if you divorce, according to the Old Testament, due to fornication and someone gets remarried, you didn't commit the sin of adultery, but that does not mean he's recommending it. He's not suggesting it or encouraging it or saying this is a great thing. It'd be similar to the fact of if someone were to kill someone on accident in the Bible, they're not guilty of first degree murder. But that wasn't like a recommendation. He's just explaining that you're not guilty of that sin. So by committing divorce, according to the Old Testament law, you're not guilty of adultery. That's not saying like, please do it though, because then in the next breath, he's saying let not man put asunder. So when we read the provisions in the law in Deuteronomy 22, this is not a recommendation. This is simply an allowable, lawful exercise that someone could do. But notice Jesus even makes it clear. I don't even like this law necessarily in the sense that people that do it, it shows that they have a heart at heart. They have a hard heart towards their spouse. They're not being as loving as they could possibly be towards their spouse. That's why there's other laws that Jesus brings up and says, hey, yeah, you could do that, but you know, be more loving than the other chief. You know, be more loving, just delay yourself to be defrauded. You know, be more loving, you know, he's basically is explaining how there's ways to go above the law. Yeah, not just committing adultery. How about don't even think adultery thoughts is what Jesus is saying. Just because there's a limit where the law is doesn't mean that's the best place to live. There's lots of places where we should live way far from the law. But I'll tell you this, the divorce statute in the Old Testament, no one is ever doing. 99.99999% of all divorce in America has nothing to do with what we're going to read in the Bible. Okay. Look at Deuteronomy 22, look at verse 13. If any man take a wife and go in under and hate her and give occasions of speech against her and bring up an evil name upon her and say, I took this woman. When I came to her, 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 under the elders of the city in the gate. The damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter under this man to wife and he hated her. And though he have given occasions of speech against her saying, I found not my 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 of that city shall take that man and chastise him. They shall immerse him in a hundred shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel because he hath 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. Now, let's think about what happened. A guy gets married and there's two possible scenarios, okay? The woman's a virgin or she's not, but it's assumed that she is. He ends up consummating the marriage and then either A, option A, she's not. So he's basically like, I don't want this woman because I thought she was a virgin and she lied to me and she lay with some man before we got married. I'm not interested in her, okay? And he wants to divorce her. That would be kind of like an annulment. And they're saying, if it's not true though, let's say he just says that because he just doesn't like her for whatever reason, he just wants to divorce her. If she truly was a virgin, then he has to get punished and he has to pay a fine and then it makes it clear, look at the end of verse 19, he may not put her away all his days. Now here's the thing. If there was a way for you to divorce someone in marriage apart from this annulment provision, why would it say that? Why does it say? He may not put her away all his days except for if she committed adultery in the future, except for if she did X, Y, and Z, or except if she did, we've already covered the only exception. The only exception was what, the fornication, but this has already been dealt with and proven wrong, so therefore there's no other legitimate reason to ever divorce your spouse. It's not acceptable. It's not lawful whatsoever. It's very clear. And it says very clearly, if the thing be true, verse 20, but if this thing be true and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel at the door of her father's house and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her father's house so shall they put evil away from among you. Now you think if those were the laws in the books, people would commit as much fornication in our country as they do? Oh, you know it wouldn't happen. And that's why it's just, and you know, this is what's funny. The Bible is so clear on this, yet so many Christians will never preach this. So many Baptists won't preach this. You know, historically, everybody believed it. In fact, the Catholic church for centuries would not give a divorce to anyone. Divorce was just not an allowable thing. Even in America, divorce was not acceptable. It was only until recently where we get all these no-fault divorces and all these weird provisions that allow this explosion of divorce. Are we really going to say, oh wow, I'm so glad that divorce entered into America, entered into the culture, was added onto the books? You know, these pharisaical divorces up for every cause. Who really came up with that? The Pharisees. Not Jesus. Jesus is saying no one should do it. But even from an NIV, my friend, and this is, even the NIV preaching churches today, they're still wrong in this doctrine, it's because they don't even read their own NIV. Now, if you go to Matthew 19 in the NIV, it won't say fornication, it'll say sexual immorality, okay? So that's vague. Obviously, they want to be vague to try and confuse people. But here's the thing, if you were being honest, even with the NIV, you would say, well, let's look that up though, right? And then if you looked it up in NIV, you know what it says? It says in Deuteronomy 22, I did not find proof of her virginity, so it makes it clear it's about a virginity issue, which would make it clear that we're talking about fornication, not adultery, and then it also says this, she shall continue to be his wife, he must not divorce her as long as he lives. Where's the NIV preacher going to get up and say that? Say you can't divorce her as long as, they never preach that. They preach every reason under the sun, and that's why we see divorce not just being a world issue, it's a church issue. We see Christians getting divorced, and I'm saying all denominations, I've been in independent fundamental Baptist churches where divorce is rampant, and I'm not talking about people that got divorced and then they got right, I'm talking about people that know the doctrine, and they just still choose to do it, and then just stay in the church, and wife swapping, and all kinds of weird bizarreness. And here's the thing, this is real grievous because there's no way, I mean I would love church, okay, and I love this church, but if my wife was married to another man showing up on Sunday morning to this church, I wouldn't be able to show up, or someone would die. I can't do that. Like it would just, that would just, you know, and even if you kind of like, here's the thing, with divorce, you kind of are mad at your spouse, but you still have those feelings of like it's mine. It's kind of like that toy that your kids have that they don't care about, but then when their brother picks it up, it's like mine, you know, you can't have that or whatever. I mean, because those feelings of jealousy and love and whatever, you just can't stand it. It drives you up a wall. Love if you basically go to jury 24 for a moment, go to jury 24, but the Bible's so clear on this issue, it's not even questionable, but so many people, I kid you not, so many people contact me all the time, ask me about it, and they'll even have like, listen to my sermon. They're just like, hey, but what about this, and I'm just like, no, yeah, but what about, you don't know, and I'm just like, I don't know. I just know that the answer's no. I don't know how bad your spouse is, okay. I don't want to know how bad your spouse is. In fact, that's the goal of everybody that asks about divorce, they want to just give you a laundry list of every negative thing they can think about their spouse. Let me tell you all the reasons why I should divorce them, and I'm thinking like, yep, they're bad, they're bad, they're bad, they're bad, they're bad, they're horrible, yep, yep, yep, yep, no. But in fact, I already know that that's going to happen, so I don't even want to hear it. Let me tell you what, I don't care, but you wouldn't know, like if you're going to ask me about what you think about divorce or marriage, the answer's always going to be the same. I've told dozens and dozens of people the same thing, no. And they always say the same things back, why does God want me to be unhappy, or blah, blah, blah. And it's like, God didn't force you to get married, buddy. You did it. You chose that person, I didn't choose him for you, okay, you have bad taste. And based on your previous history of bad taste, why do I think it's going to get better? It might get worse. Because you know, it's funny, some people tell me about their spouse, and I'm thinking like, actually, your spouse sounds a lot better than most of the spouses I hear about. You don't even know how bad it could be, buddy. And sometimes they jump out of the firing pan into the fire. I've known people that literally, they were married to a Jew, okay, a Christ-rejecting, God-hating Jew, and they got divorced and remarried, and you'd think like, how could it be worse than that? Well, then the next husband was a pedophile that molested their child. Well, you don't know they're a Jew, Pastor Shelley. Well, the next one could be a pedophile. I mean, you never, it's like, oh, it could be better, it could be worse. That's what some people don't realize. They always think that, well, if I marry again, it'll be better. And I'm thinking like, you don't realize it could be a lot worse. Because when you got married to that girl, she was probably of a lot better, like, opportunity to get married than the one when you get later, right? Because when you're not divorced, you have a lot more opportunity to marry people that are not divorced or more likely, and you were younger and better-looking and everything like that. Now that you're middle-aged and going through a divorce and everything else, you're less marketable, and the people that you're going after are going to be less marketable. Why do you think that you're now going to get a winner? I mean, you had your chance to get the winner and you failed, okay? Don't think you're going to now pick the winner, like, it's just kind of, it kind of, and look, I'm not down on all the people that are in these weird situations, okay? I'm just trying to be real. I'm just trying to be honest with the facts, okay? Deuteronomy 24, here's your other explanation of this particular provision in the law. Deuteronomy 24 verse 1, when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife, and if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and 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 an abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the land of sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. Now, you have to understand verse 1 is talking about the similar provision given in the previous chapter. The uncleanness is the fornication. The uncleanness is the fact that she was not a maid, her virginity is not found. It's saying that he could give her a bill of divorcement, and then lawfully, she could marry another man, and they could be essentially married legally. There's no extra sin. There's no adultery that was ever committed, okay? So technically speaking, a man can marry a woman, finds out she's not a virgin, divorces her, and then if she marries some other man, that's not adultery whatsoever. The adultery, though, is whenever you're divorcing for any other reason, okay? This is still not a recommendation to divorce. It's just clarifying. If you've been divorced and remarried, you committed adultery by getting married that day, unless it was this specific provision. That's what the Bible's saying. Now, it's not continual adultery. It's not like committing adultery every day or every moment. It's the one act of getting remarried, basically. That was the wrong act. It was adultery. At that point, though, you just stay with that person. And the Bible even brings up the fact that if you got divorced again, for whatever reason, you can't go back to the previous spouse, because then that's like another weird form of adultery or abomination, and it's just like horrible, okay? So once you've kind of broken it off with a person, you're supposed to stay away from that person if you've been with another and basically got remarried. Now, anybody that's been divorced and neither party has been remarried, I still think they should try to get remarried, like, reconciled. But if they've been married to another person after that, they should never try to reconcile, never get back together, which is contrary to the book of the Muslims. Their Quran literally teaches the opposite, okay, but it's just weird how the Quran is. You have to understand, though, in this latter portion, when it says that if the latter has a husband-hater and write her a bill of divorcement, that's not bringing up the revision. This is just talking about sin, okay? This is just saying, hey, when people get divorced, which is contrary to the law, but they still get divorced, okay, don't go, because, here's the thing, if he were to marry this person in verse 3, the latter husband, he has no reason to possibly divorce her, because he already knows that she's not a maid. We already know that her virginity has been taken, so that exclusion has already been eliminated from the equation. It's simply bringing up the fact that people sin. I don't know if you realize this, people sin, okay? And the Bible brings this up all the time. The Bible talked about what to do if you have two wives. That's not a recommendation. It's just trying to help people know how to behave after they've committed certain sins. So it's saying, hey, if you're just Elizabeth Taylor and just cycling through husbands, don't go back to any of the previous husbands. You know, just stay away from all the ones that you've already kind of, you know, divorced and gotten rid of. Go to Romans chapter 7, go to Romans chapter number 7. Again, where did we read in Deuteronomy 24, if you just don't have the same feelings you had on the wedding night, get rid of your spouse. Never. Let not man put asunder. You know, divorce is a sin, and getting remarried, if you were divorced and your spouse is still alive is a sin, okay? Now, let me make it clear. The only way to sin by remarrying is if your spouse is alive. So technically speaking, you could get divorced from someone, and then if that person dies and you get remarried, that's not adultery. The only adultery would be if they were still alive, okay? So you know, some people bring that up to me. They'll be like, well, we're divorced, what am I supposed to do forever? And I'm thinking like, they might die. I mean, that's not off the table. You know, some people live their lives as if they have to make every decision for the rest of their life. And I'm thinking like, just take it one day at a time. Just serve God today, okay? Just do the right thing today, and let tomorrow worry about itself. You never know what God could do or God could turn around. You know, some people say like they're married to like a literal pedophile or like a reprobate or a sodomite or something, and I'm like, AIDS does magic. It eliminates, you know, people. They're short, they have a really short lifespan, and there's all kinds of other things that could happen to these people. You never know. Don't go and rush off and commit adultery though, you know? And here's what the Bible says, Romans chapter 7 verse 1. Know ye not, brethren? For I speak to them that know the law, how that the law of dominion over a man, as long as he liveth. For the woman, which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. So there's nothing wrong with remarriage. Remarriage is bad if your spouse is still alive. And if we go back and we think about what Jesus was saying, even though you divorced them on paper, in God's eyes you're still married. So that person's still alive, so it would be wrong, okay? I'm not here to condemn anyone, you know, I love all of y'all the same, it really doesn't matter to me whatsoever, okay? But here's what I don't want. I don't want people that have been divorced or remarried to make excuses about it and basically teach their children that it's not a big deal. And I don't want people that are, never, have never committed this sin to excuse those type of situations with their children about Uncle So-and-so and Aunt So-and-so and whatever, so then they think that it's okay. So that they think that there's this, well, if I don't really like the person five years, I'll just divorce them and trade up, you know, I'll just get a new one or I'll just, you know, get another relationship or anything like that. Now, you should go into marriage with the idea that you're never going to divorce them no matter how horrible they are. And you say, why would I ever get married? Well, Jesus married us, you know, so. I mean, if Jesus can say, I do, why can't we say I do? You know, every person is like, that's why it's important to get married to a saved person. That's why it's important to choose your spouse wisely. And here's the thing, if we say, it's forever, wouldn't that cause your children to at least think twice about who they're going to marry? Whereas if you say, like, it's not a big deal, if they don't work out, just move on. Then they don't really think it's hard, they're not necessarily analyzing the character of that individual, thinking about how compatible they are as their life choices, does this person like church? Does this person like the Lord? Does this person want to have children? Does this person want to, you know, have the same kind of lifestyle, life path as me, you know, because it doesn't make sense to marry someone that's going in a different direction. You know, you want to marry someone that you're somewhat compatible with, you know, in the sense that the number one cause of divorce is what, incompatibility, right? I mean, you don't want to just then walk into a relationship, you know, some people get married after one week, and I'm thinking like, good luck, you know, I'm not against that in the sense that, you know, some people in the Bible got married that quickly. I'm not going to say that you're wrong. I'm just saying that, you know what, it may have more problems. It's riskier in a sense, but I guess it just shows that you just, you love hard and fast, okay? Now, again, I've mentioned this because there's a particular individual I want to bring up, and here's the thing. Like I said, I'm not interested in just condemning people on this issue, okay? And if you have been divorced and remarried, you have no fear of me just getting up and just like ripping on you personally or whatever. But here's the thing, if you decide to become a pastor and you've been divorced and remarried, or you are pastoring and you get divorced and remarried, you're fair game. And I will bring it up because it's wicked and you're supposed to set an example for the congregation, you're supposed to set an example for the flock, okay? And when you're literally airing out your dirty laundry on your YouTube channel for the whole world to see, then yeah, I get to comment, okay? Now, most people are not doing this, some people have done this, okay? But don't literally record your fights with your spouse and upload them to YouTube. Don't live stream your fights on Facebook, okay? This is the worst marriage advice, I mean, I don't know who gave you that idea of recording your spouse when you're arguing with them. But literally, we have Baptists, fundamental Baptists, so-called, or at least former fundamental Baptists doing this. Now, I'm going to bring up a particular individual, and again, it's not a sermon that we like to hear. The person's name is Kent Hovind, and who knows who Kent Hovind is? Yeah, a lot of people do, and I'm not saying everybody does, Kent Hovind, okay? Why is Kent Hovind? Kent Hovind's a real famous person in some circles just because he used to do this traveling creation seminar, we'd go around to universities, and he would eventually, he would just debate the atheist professors, or the geologists, or the different, you know, basically God-hating, evolutionary-supporting teachers of all disciplines, you know, whether that be, we were talking about the sky, we were talking about the Earth, it doesn't matter, he would just debate them all. And here's the thing, he would always win these debates because when you're debating an atheist, they're stupid on purpose. Of course you're going to win, okay? They don't even think God exists. They think everything just created itself. They think that man came from a rock. It's like, oh, you can beat that guy in a debate? Oh, man, that's impressive. Okay, now admittedly, he said a lot of cool things. I liked some of his videos and some of the information he put out, but he was a pastor. He was a pastor of a fundamental Baptist church, and then he basically broke off and created a parachurch ministry, creation science evangelism, created this thing called Dinosaur Adventure Land, he went and guest preached at all these universities, and then he got arrested for tax fraud and tax issues. He was in jail for a long time. Well, when he got out of jail, it was in 2016, okay, when he got out of jail, or I'm sorry, maybe it was 2015. Let me make it clear. It was like, I think it was 2015 he got out of jail. Well, the summer around 2015, 2016, he ended up divorcing his wife, okay. His wife was Joe Hovind, okay, which is wrong. He's had plenty of time to figure out if she's a virgin or not, okay. He's been married for decades, has children, all right. That provision doesn't exist. Now, then he went and created a new dinosaur adventure land in Alabama, and he labels himself, if you go to his website, he labels himself as evangelist slash pastor. He calls himself a pastor, which is, you know, look, you can't just like start a church as a pastor and then just quit for decades and then you're still a pastor. That's not how it works, my friend. Ordination does not work that way. It's specifically limited, and of course, he's disqualified himself, I mean, even beyond the fact that even if that was theoretically possible, like you're a pastor and you get hit in the head and you're in a coma for 10 years or something. I guess when you wake up, maybe you're still a pastor, maybe. I don't know, that's a weird, but this is not his scenario, okay. He divorces his wife, his son Eric Hovind is just a freak, okay. I can't stand him, he's the most annoying person, he's a fraud, okay. He moves to Alabama, starts this new ministry. Well, then he started making public videos about how he's going to get remarried. And let me explain something. Do you know why people get divorced? So they can get remarried. He gets divorced in like 2016 and then gets remarried in 2016, and it's not a real coincidence that those things, how they work, and he's marrying a woman named Mary Toko, okay. And then he started making videos like, oh, there's all these people criticizing me for getting divorced and remarried, and then he just makes all these public videos about how, you know, it's fine. He says, oh, well, that woman that was caught in adultery, Jesus said, you know, we shouldn't be casting stones at her. I'm like, why didn't you read Matthew 19? Why didn't you go to Deuteronomy? Why do you have to go to the woman caught in adultery to then explain your divorce and remarriage? Why don't you go to Romans 7? Because he knows he's wrong, because he doesn't like to use those parts of the Bible. How about Genesis? Have you not read Ken Hovind? Did you not read about Adam and Eve? Did you not read about them becoming one flesh? I mean, the guy that's an expert, triple expert on Genesis, can't even read, you know, the first few chapters, and then Jesus doubles down on it? I mean, what kind of expert are you on Genesis when you don't even know the Genesis doctrine? And it's wicked, but then he gets married to this Mary Toco. Now, let me explain something. I'm using words that we're normally using. He got married to Mary Toco. What does that mean? They just had a little ceremony, but they didn't get a marriage license, because since he doesn't like paying taxes, he also doesn't like going and getting marriage certificates, which is not legit, okay, but there is an interesting thing. In some states in the United States, it is legal to have a common law marriage, okay? Not every state, some states. What is a common law marriage? Essentially, a common law marriage. If you're over the age of 18, haven't been married, or you're able to be legally married, you both agree that you're married, and you publicly present yourself as married, you are actually married in that state. Be careful what you say about your girlfriend, okay? And not every state does this, but some states have this. So you know, if you just go around telling everybody that you're married to some chick, and then y'all break up, and then she starts suing you, it's legit. Don't go around and call someone your wife if you're not ready to already be married to her. Now, it's legally binding. That's not every single state. Alabama have this statute. So if we follow the logic of the state law, Ken Oven, even though he didn't get a marriage certificate, he's still married, okay? Kind of like churches, churches are not 501c3 because they file for the document. They're 501c3 for being a church, so you're automatically 501c3. So if you go to the ceremony and you declare yourselves married publicly, you're just considered married, okay? But here's the thing. If you did that and you were already married, it doesn't work, because you can't marry multiple people unless you go to the Mormon cult, okay, or Ken Oven's cult, okay? Because not only that, then they broke up in July of 2017, and here's something that happened. In Alabama, they changed the law, and no longer do they recognize common law marriages anymore as of January 1st of 2017. But every other marriage before that was grandfathered in. After you get common law married, if you want to separate legally, you have to get a divorce according to the Alabama. Now let me just read for you. I don't want you to just trust me. I'll read you the Alabama code, or I'll just read, like this is an interpretation of it, okay? But it says, Alabama does not recognize common law marriages established in the state after January 1st, 2017. However, the state recognizes the union of common law married couples who establish their marriages legally in states that recognize this type of union, including Texas, Iowa, Montana, Colorado, South Carolina, Kansas, and Utah. There's like seven states that still do this. Any common law couple from these states will have their marriage respected and accorded to all legal rights of conventional married couples in Alabama. It then also says this, do common law marriages require divorce, though? It says, yes, common law marriages require divorce in Alabama. Common law marriages established in the state before January 1st, 2017 are legal, and legal marriages require a divorce to dissolve. There is no such thing as common law divorce, meaning that even though you can just ignore the state and get married, you can't divorce legally in the state. You're still married to that person, even in the state's eyes. And this, you know, it makes me think of how Jesus is, kind of, right? Because even though we file the paperwork, Jesus still considers us married. And it's like, even if me and my wife sign some little document saying, oh, we decided we're not married anymore, the state's going to be like, sorry, you're still married. Because you have to, like, get an official divorce from the state. They can still consider you married. You can't just dissolve it on your own. But here's the thing. What did Ken Hovind and Mary Toco do? They just decided it was a divorce. They didn't actually go and file the document. They didn't actually go and legally, you know, get divorced. Which again, why would you get divorced again? That marriage worked out really well. A year? Good job, buddy. I think it was, like, nine months. Oh, I found the love of my life for nine months. How is that the love of your life? How about the woman that stayed married to you while you were in prison for a decade? Then he marries another woman. And when I say marry, marries. Again, not getting the certificate. Cindy Lincoln, another lady who he just, you know, does his little private little cult weddings at his little compound or whatever. But here's the thing. Now, we're so far from not even just the Bible. We're far from the legal laws of the land. Him getting married to Cindy Lincoln didn't even happen in anybody's eyes, except for maybe hers. Because there's no contract, you know, that's legally binding. He's still technically married to Mary Toco in the eyes of Alabama. Okay. Well, in their relationship, he had over 600 recordings of their fights. He claimed that he threw her on the ground and it was a domestic dispute and took him to court and he got jailed for 30 days and was found guilty. I don't know if it happened or not. He then released all these recordings of their fights publicly to try and exonerate himself. And I'm just thinking like, it's like her just screaming at him and then he's yelling at her and it's like, why would you release this publicly? I kid you not, in a video released where he's releasing these audio clips of this Cindy Lincoln that he was supposedly married to and they're screen fighting, in the next breath he says, oh, yeah, by the way, I just got married to another girl, Sandra Princess Sawyer in the same video. How special. How special would you feel if you got to announce your wife and you are now married, you got married last week, in the same video of your former ex-wife who still you're going through legal proceedings with, was screaming at you in the fight, wouldn't you be a little weary whenever you start getting upset with your spouse and you start pulling out his phone? Like, what are you doing? Are you recording me? That really inspires trust, doesn't it? Don't you just love it when everybody tells you, like when you get a call, what if someone's calling you and they're like, hey, I just want to let you know I'm recording you. Do you now feel like safe talking to that person? Does that encourage intimacy in a relationship? Well, he just, this is what he does. He says he gets married in the church and then he does a church annulment. Where's the church annulment? None of this even makes sense. You know what he's doing? He's literally just committing fornication and adultery rampantly, but instead of just everybody pointing that out, he cloaks it in marriage. But it's not real marriage, my friend, it's just a bunch of girlfriends, a bunch of concubines that he's just lying with, that he's not really married to, and it's even illegal. We're not even talking, like, even just in the eyes of the world, this stuff is illegal. Now, go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 7, go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 7. Let me show you a few more verses here. And while you're turning there, let me read you, according to Alabama state law, this is Criminal Code 13A. Does a person commits bigamy when he intentionally contracts or purports to contract a marriage with another person when he has a living spouse? A person who contracts a marriage outside this state, which would be bigamous if contracted in this state, commits bigamy by cohabiting in the state with another party to such a marriage. It's basically saying it's wrong, it's a criminal act to get married to someone when you're still legally married and you know that you're legally married. It says, the only exception would be if you reasonably believe that your previous marriage is void or dissolved by death, divorce, or annulment, which he would say, oh, well, we did that. But here's the thing, he didn't do it according to the state law, though, and he knows he didn't do it to the state law, so I believe that would make it intentional, because he's intentionally marrying people contrary to the laws of Alabama. And here's the thing, just because you're unaware of statutes in Texas is not an out, because as a citizen, you are legally responsible to know all the laws of the land. So you can't just be like, oh, that doesn't apply to me, I didn't know I couldn't kill someone, I didn't read that. It's like you're legally responsible for every single law in the area that you live in, whether you read all the statutes or not. Just like you're responsible for all of the Bible, whether you read it or not. If you're Herod and you don't like the Bible, you're still responsible for the law of God, because he wrote it on your heart. And guess what bigamy is? A classy felony. Now we have pastors bragging about committing felonies online, and look, tons of people listen to this guy, want to go to his little cult compound. I say no. But I'm going to prove that, too, from the Bible. Look at 1 Corinthians 7, look at verse 10, under the myriad I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband, but in if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife. Even if your spouse abandons you, the Bible says you're supposed to stay, you're remaining unmarried. I didn't write this. You know who didn't write this also in a context? Paul. Because look what he says, I command, yet not I, but the Lord. So even though he's writing it, he's saying, look, I didn't just come up with this. I didn't just decide this on my own. This is not Paul just getting up and saying this is Paul's personal opinion. This is God Almighty saying, do not divorce your spouse. Why didn't Ken Owen read this passage? Oh, she abandoned me. You're just making stuff up now. You just want to do that. Now, while Alabama got rid of common law marriage, Texas didn't, so be careful again. Go to 1 Corinthians 5, you're basically there. And 1 Corinthians 5 deals with church discipline, which most churches won't do anymore. But this church will still exercise church discipline when appropriate. And it holds us all accountable. It provides for a cleaner, safer church. I love it. You know what's crazy? When I think about this passage, I always think about the latter portion. But think about verse 1, okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much is named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. So in the time that this is written, a man being with his father's wife is so gross even to the world. It's something that you would even, like if you just told your unsaved Catholic coworker, your Muslim coworker, it doesn't matter, just atheist, whatever. They would all be like, that's weird. That's gross. I can't believe anybody would do that. And here's the thing. What Kent Hovind is doing is not even named among the Gentiles, my friend. Even the unsaved world thinks it's insane to go off into the woods and just start shacking up with random women, calling them their wives, and it's not even legal. It's a literal felony to the world. What kind of shame and reproach is Kent Hovind dragging on the name of Christ by dragging women into the wilderness and calling him his wife, he's not even married to, and just divorce one week, the next week, marry it to another and another one? I mean, he's going to start having videos where it's like the arguments from the third wife and then the second and the third and then here's my new one. I mean, how many times? Think about it. Oh, well, he'll never get divorced again. I already read through the statistics. It keeps getting more likely, right? And he's already shown, he's already shown to have four in about six years and he's, I mean, he looks of good health. I mean, he could live another couple of decades. I mean, who's to say what the limit is yet? I mean, he's going to give Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money if he doesn't stop. He might be the most married person ever, quote, unquote, even though it's not legitimate. And again, it's just like he's begging the government to come and arrest him again and just bring more approach on the word of God and, you know, whenever you have no self-control in one area, it's usually ekes out and oozes out in the other areas, doesn't it? Like the fact that he partners up with all kinds of heretics and frauds and crooks, endorses people like Ray Comfort, endorses, I mean, in fact, Ken Hovind will go preach at any church, which again, I'm not necessarily against preaching at any church, but he'll literally go to churches where they preach a hardcore work salvation and he won't mention salvation by faith. I mean, hey, if the Catholic church wants me to come down next, you know, down the street and preach, I'll preach. I don't think they're going to invite me back though. I don't think they're going to like it, okay? And it was sad. I could preach this sermon in the Catholic church a couple of hundred years ago and they would love it, but they wouldn't like it now. They wouldn't be able to tolerate it now. You know, the Catholic church never changes. Yeah, you might want to rethink that one. We're the one true religion, you know. No, you're the one true cult, but you say, well, yeah, but this is a little bit different fornication. It doesn't matter what fornication. If someone's saved and they're committing fornication, the Bible is clear on how you handle that person. Verse 9. I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company of a man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, covetous, or an idolater, a railer, a junker, an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat. What have I to do to judge them also that are without, do not you judge them that are within? Them that are without, God judgeth, therefore put away among yourselves that wicked person. And let me tell you something, Kent Hovind is a wicked person. Oh, I can't believe you said that. The Bible said that. Paul called him that under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. So you know who also called him that? The Holy Ghost. I didn't write the word of God, Kent Hovind. I think he's probably saved. I don't know. He's got some serious issues. I've heard him give good answers on salvation, I've heard him say bad things on salvation, he hangs out with a lot of heretics, he's got occult compounds, he's marrying all kinds of weird women. I don't know. Solomon married a lot of weird women. Solomon got pretty weird, okay. People did some weird stuff. I mean Lot's not really a beacon of Christianity in the Bible. I don't know if you read that part of the Bible or not. Judah's not that great even in parts of the Bible, okay. So it's not like I'm looking, you know, a lot of people want to say they believe salvation's by faith without any works, but then you show someone that's got no works and they're like, well, I don't think you're saved. And it's just like, well, you can't have it both ways. Maybe he's just an example of a modern day lot, of a modern day Romans 4, right, and all of his works are just fake and vain and just, you know, there's no crown in heaven that's like you beat an atheist in a debate. I'm sorry that you don't think that, I know you think that that's so great or whatever, but God's not up in heaven just like, yeah, get it, get him, you know. He's saying you're supposed to go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not the lips of him of knowledge. He's like, duh, get away from that guy. Go preach the gospel. What kind of evangelism are you doing when you're hiding in the woods marrying your cult follower after cult follower? What kind of message are you sending? Oh, but he has a YouTube channel. Airing out his fights? What kind of evangelism is that? Do you really want me, if I got in a fight with my wife, to air that out on YouTube? Evangelism. This is nonsense. Even the world thinks it's stupid. Even the world is condemning Kent Hovind. And rightly so. Where are the Baptists to get up and condemn it? You know what they don't want to? Because they won't preach against divorce in their church. They won't preach against the people that have been divorced and remarried that are their pastor friends. They won't get up and say that it's wrong. So then they can't preach on freaks and weirdos like Kent Hovind. You know what? This church is not going to shy away from the hard truths of the Bible and what the Bible says or I'll just step down. I'm not going to sit up here and not be able to preach the word of God and preach the Bible to people. And here's the thing. We need to be a church that emulates marriage forever. And if you've been divorced and remarried, you should believe that just as much as the people that haven't. And you should champion that doctrine and, in fact, you should be the number one evangelist on that. Say, let me, let me, it's not good. Instead of going around and pretending like it's great or something. Oh, that's the best thing that ever happened to me. My ex-wife is, you know, the devil's sister. She may be, but you know what? That was still a mistake. And we ought to be a church that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ over our own selfish ambitions and do the right thing even when it's hard. Those are perfect. Thank you Heavenly Father for the word of God. Thank you for giving us the institution of marriage. I pray that we wouldn't just trample marriage under our feet like the world does. That we wouldn't foul it up, that we wouldn't treat it with disrespect, that we wouldn't abhor it, but rather we'd see it as the beautiful gift that you gave us that a man could love a wife and that a wife could love her husband. And I pray that you would just help people in this room learn to love their spouse. Decide that it's forever in their heart. And knowing that it's forever, doing their best effort to make their marriage great every single day. And even when it's not great, I pray that you would just encourage and strengthen their heart to just have more love that day rather than being filled with bitterness and hatred towards their spouse. I pray that everyone in this room would take divorce off the table. They teach their children to take divorce off the table. And those that have suffered the consequences of it would see it for what it is and make a plan to not commit more divorce or more heartache or more pain than has already been caused. And I pray that you would just help bless this church and its marriages. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our last song, we're going to go to song 194, Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. And I believe we're going to stick around for a couple of baptisms after that. One ninety-four, Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. One hundred and ninety-four, Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. What a wonderful change in my life has been brought, since Jesus came into my heart. I have light in my soul for which God had sought, since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Joy o'er my soul like the sea will draw, since Jesus came into my heart. I have seized from my wandering in golden ashtray, since Jesus came into my heart. And my sins which were many are all washed away, since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. What a joy o'er my soul like the sea will draw, since Jesus came into my heart. I've possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure, since Jesus came into my heart. And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure, since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea will draw, since Jesus came into my heart. There's a light in the valley of death now for me, since Jesus came into my heart. In the gates of the city beyond I can see, since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea will draw, since Jesus came into my heart. I shall go there to dwell in that city I know, since Jesus came into my heart. And I'm happy, so happy as on where I go, since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea will draw, since Jesus came into my heart. We have Brother Oscar coming for baptism this morning. Brother Oscar, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, can I baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, buried in the light of death, raised to walk in the name of the Father. Thank you. Make sure you congratulate Brother Oscar. God bless you guys that are dismissed. Thank you.