(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

that last one again yeah let's uh we just start at the beginning of the course yeah where do you want to do the beginning of the course it feels like normally we just go here and we go straight back to the beginning right that's what we'll be doing until the third time we just pull something yeah that's what we'll do the first two times we'll stop after that before the dc we'll go through that twice and then the third one yeah um yeah let's do uh unless you want to start a second thing go through it twice yeah let's do twice yeah we'll start at the second one hey ready yep we're doing the second time through and then the third time yeah ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Cool, cool, so 224 and then the second one is 136 I think, 136 and then this one. All right everybody, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. Glad you could all be here this Sunday night. Let's go ahead and take out our hymnals to 424, Oh Come All Ye Faithful. I figure we can get into the Christmas spirit tonight. We might even sing this out caroling, so this will give us some good practice. 424, Oh Come All Ye Faithful. 424, Oh Come All Ye Faithful. All together. Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Oh come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Oh sing, all ye bright hosts of heaven above. Glory to God, all glory in the highest. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Yea Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning. Jesus, to Thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Amen. Great singing. Let's bow out this word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you again that we could be here tonight to have a good fellowship with the brethren and hear the preaching of your word. Just thank you for our friends, our family, our health. Thank you for our salvation. I pray you bless the service tonight. Help it to be spirit-filled that we could all receive edification and walk out here stronger Christians. We love you. Just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Next is going to be 136. Master, the tempest is raging. 136. Sing it all together on the first song. 136. Master, the tempest is raging. Master, the tempest is raging. The bellows are tossing high. 136. The sky is o'er-shadowed with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh. 136. Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep? 136. When each moment so madly is threatening, a grave in the angry deep. 136. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. 136. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. 136. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace be still. Peace be still. 136. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace. Peace be still. 136. Master, with anguish of spirit, I vow in my grief today. 106. The depths of my sad heart are troubled. Awaken and save my prey. 106. Torrance of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul. 106. And I perish, I perish, dear master. O, hasten and take control. 106. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. 106. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. 106. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace be still. Peace be still. 106. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace. Peace be still. 106. Master, the terror is over. The elements sweetly rest. 106. Earth's sun in the foam lake is nearer, and heaven's within my breast. 106. Linger, O blessed Redeemer, leave me alone no more. 106. And with joy I shall make the blessed harbor and rest on the blissful shore. 106. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. 106. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. 106. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace be still. Peace be still. 106. They all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace. Peace be still. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin, you can slip your hand nice and high and Nusher can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible passage for memory. John chapter number one. It's a longer chapter but has a lot of really good verses in there. Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times. I'm going to get a count for the last few days real quick. Was there any soul learning report from Thursday that hasn't been submitted okay? All right. Three for Thursday. What about Friday? Anything from Friday? Okay. What about Saturday? All right. Ten for Saturday. What about today? I didn't get the church fan so let's see. All right. Looks like we had 12 for today. Praise the Lord on that. Keep up the great work on our soul winning. Also on the right we have a list of expecting ladies. Continue to pray for all of them. We have a prayer list down below. Please email any prayer requests in there. On the back we have the church yearbook photos. Please make sure if you signed up today just right after the service to get that over with quickly. I think almost everybody's completed. We also have the baby shower December 18th. Down below we have a couple other events. We have the Brownsville-Madam Morris soul winning marathon. Please sign up. Today is the deadline. As soon as I have that I'm going to try and make the plans for the travel arrangements. So if you put your information I'll try to send an email and communicate with everybody as quickly as possible as far as what it's going to look like on the soul winning marathon details. But we'll be meeting at a Chick-fil-A and I'll give you the address for those that maybe are listening online and everything like that. It is 2150 Rubin Torres Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas. So it's 2150 Rubin M Torres Boulevard Brownsville, Texas. We're going to meet there in the morning for soul winning. And again I'll make another follow-up video with the exact details. Everybody that's on the trip will email you an itinerary and everything like that. So you'll get the details for sure. Also we have Christmas caroling again December 14th. All you have to do is show up. So that's pretty easy. And we're singing just two real simple songs. They'll come all you faithful and joy to the world. We'll even give you a sheet if you feel really uncomfortable. But we usually just sing the first two verses. It's real simple. Again you can't really anticipate how much fun it is until you actually do it. Almost everybody that does it always says they enjoyed it way more than they thought they would. And again soul winning some people like it. Everyone loves the caroling. Like everybody thinks it's great and they really have a good time pretty much for the most part. And so it's a lot different feeling. People are like oh yeah you're here. They're not like you're steadfast aren't you. And you're like yes. So I'd encourage you to participate and we'll have pizza afterwards. December 17th we have our ladies Christmas party from 6 to 9 p.m. and I may have misspoke but it's it's nurselings just only not preferred just nursing's only. So that means you guys need to really step up to the plate and and watch the kiddos so that way the ladies can really enjoy and have a really nice evening. And also we have a candlelight service the 22nd. We have the 31st New Year's Eve party at 7 as well. And so lots of cool events. Fun stuff for the holidays. That's pretty much all I have for announcements. We'll go ahead and go to our third song. Brother Duncan's going to lead us. 216 Shirley goodness and mercy right in your hymnal. 216 Shirley goodness and mercy. Again that's 216 Shirley goodness and mercy. All together. A pilgrim was I and a wandering. In the cold night of sin I did roam. When Jesus a kind shepherd found me. And now I am on my way home. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. He restore with my soul when I'm weary. He giveth me strength day by day. He leads me beside the still waters. He guards me each step of the way. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. When I walk through the dark lonesome valley. My savior will walk with me there. And safely his great hand will lead me. To the mansions he's gone to prepare. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I shall feast at the table spread for me. Shirley goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days all the days of my life. All the days all the days of my life. Amen. Great singing. As the offering plates go around, please turn in your Bibles to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. James chapter 2, the Bible reads, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Talk in, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? For ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressions. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offended one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith, and hath not works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth that there is one God, thou doest well. Devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. He seeth in how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only? Likewise also, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for all the souls that were won this weekend. Please Lord, bless our church, bless our pastor with your spirit, allow him to preach boldly, that we might be edified, that we might glorify you in the days to come, and in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Let's look back at verse 13. The Bible reads, for you shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. We talked a little bit about mercy this morning, about how in hell there's no mercy, but fortunately for us, we live on the earth, and we still have mercy. But the reality is that we have to balance a lot of things in the Bible, and we have to understand that we need to balance judgment and justice with mercy and grace in the Bible. And we don't want to be people who get so focused, or so heavily influenced by the law, or are being quick to judge people, that we get to a point where we're not extending mercy, grace, or being long suffering towards people at the same time. And in James chapter number two, the context is very clear talking about someone having respect of persons, or accepting someone's person based on how much money they have. Basically someone walks in, and it's evident from their clothing, perhaps their watch, or just their physical possessions, that there's someone has a lot of money. They have the gay clothing, meaning happy, or meaning expensive, nice clothing. Whereas another person comes in, it's obvious that they're poor, or they don't have a lot of money, and essentially you decide you want to be buddy-buddy with the guy that has lots of money, but you kind of treat poorly the guy that doesn't have as nice of clothes, or doesn't have as much money. Basically you're making a judgment there, is what the Bible is teaching. And if you're going to just judge people based on their physical appearance, you're going to oftentimes make a lot of bad judgments. And we should also have mercy on people that may not be as well-to-do as we are. Maybe they don't have as nice a clothes, or nice a car, nice as money, or whatever, but we should extend mercy to them. And the Bible warns, God is warning us, that if you are a respected person, that's a sin. Not only is that a sin, but he says if you're going to judge people without mercy, then God's going to basically do the same thing to you, and show you no mercy at the same time. Now I don't know about you, but I want God's mercy. I want God's grace. And if God were to look down upon me, and we're going to compare socioeconomic status, I don't measure up to God, right? The guy who has cattle on a thousand hills compared to me, it's like, who are you, you know? What have I got to offer? I mean, if God's going to judge me based on who has the nice clothing or the vile raiment, you know, our righteousness are as filthy rags as the Bible describes. So I would be the guy that's in the poor, you know, raiment, the vile raiment. I'm the guy that doesn't have any money in comparison to God, yet he still treats me with kindness. He still treats me with grace and long suffering. And so that's how we should treat other people. We should treat people with grace, with mercy, and we shouldn't just judge people without mercy, you know, not allowing to extend mercy to some people. If you go to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five, you know, the Bible tells us when Jesus is speaking, he says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. So we're not supposed to just judge things based on a whim, based on our own personal perspective, based on what it appears, but rather we're supposed to take the Word of God and apply it to a situation and then come to the judgment, conclusion, or decisions that we should make. Not just willy-nilly, not just what feels right, looks right, because if I were to just say all the people with money are good and all the people without money are bad, where is that in the Bible? And in fact, the Bible oftentimes paints a different picture. A lot of times it's talking about how the rich people are the ones oppressing you and drawing you before, you know, the rulers. That's what it says in James chapter number two. And then it talks about how the poor are rich in faith and they're the heirs of the kingdom. So it even is saying it's kind of contradictory how you should even think, you know, the fact that most people going to heaven are probably poor or not well-to-do. It's harder for a rich man to enter the camel or enter into heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. So according to the Bible, you know, it's not that the rich people are better. In most cases, they're not. Now again, would it be fair to then make the opposite assumption and say, well, because he has money, he's worse than the poor people? No, that's also not a righteous judgment. We have to take in consideration all the factors and really we have to look at someone through the lens of scripture to make a proper judgment, to judge righteously and not just rather off of the appearance. Now in Matthew chapter number five, it's the Sermon on the Mount, it's real famous, Jesus Christ is doing something very specific, okay? The context of Matthew five in the section that we're going to look at, what Jesus Christ is doing is he's going beyond the law to explain righteousness and holiness to such an extremity that no one could ever say, well, I'm perfect. You know, because when it comes to certain commandments, some people would not be guilty, right? Some people have never killed anyone, right? Some people have never committed adultery. Some people have never, you know, committed certain sins in the Bible. And so the Pharisees want to go around and pontificate how they're righteous and they keep the law. And Jesus is bringing up all kinds of different scenarios and situations of how you should act, what is right, to illustrate the fact that everyone's actually a sinner deserving of hell, okay? That's the context of Matthew chapter number five. Now within that, though, we have little mini lessons, little mini ideas that we can kind of pull out from that and extract other teachings. Look at Matthew chapter five and look at verse 38. You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. So Jesus says, you know, you guys think that you should just basically treat people the way they treat you, but the Bible teaches that you should actually do good unto people even when they don't deserve it. You should give people things that they didn't even ask for. You know, someone says, hey, will you go with me a mile? Say, I'll go with you two. You didn't ask for two. You're just willing to go above and beyond what someone has asked. If someone smite you on the cheek or just kind of hit you on the cheek or whatever, you would literally turn to them the other in the sense that if someone did you wrong, okay, this is really what this is meaning, okay? Let's say your buddy comes up to you and says, you know what? I forgot my lunch money or whatever. I'm down. Can you give me 20 bucks? I'd like to, you know, get some lunch, but I'll pay you back tomorrow. And then they give you, you give them 20 bucks, and then tomorrow comes and they don't pay you back. And they just, they just never pay you back. But then he comes back to you and he's like, hey, so I forgot my lunch again. Give me 20 bucks and I'll pay you back. Basically the Bible's saying you would just turn to the other cheek and knowing he's probably going to smite you again, knowing that it's probably going to cause some kind of damage to you. It may hurt you. You're probably never going to get paid back again. You're not going to be jaded by the previous experience. And you'll just say, all right, here's the 20 bucks. And you'll just give it to him anyways. You know, someone sues you at the law and takes away that coat. Give them your cloak also, right? It's like, hey, they took this away. Let's have more. What else do you need? What else do you know? Basically just having a spirit that's different than giving someone exactly what they deserve. Now here's what you have to understand about the law. The law is just. And we think about justice. What is justice? Justice is getting what you deserve. Okay? So if someone smites you on the cheek, what do they deserve? Be smite on the cheek. Isn't that what it's saying? I mean, eye for eye, life for life, whatever it would be. That would be just. But you can go above justice and you can extend mercy. You can give grace. You can basically go above that which is just, what is deserved, what is equitable. And praise the Lord for mercy because if we all got what we deserved, we'd go to hell. That's what the law teaches. Go if you would to Exodus 21, go to Exodus 21. And some people don't get this. Some people just get this like hyper justice attitude where they want everyone to get exactly what they deserve at all times. And I'm thinking like, that's so contradictory to everything the Bible teaches because I never get what I deserve. You know, I get to go to heaven. I deserve hell. On top of that, God gives me grace and mercy every single day of my life. We all sin. And if we were honest with ourselves, we never seem to get punished as much as we probably deserve. And like my children, they never get punished as much as they deserve. And sometimes that's not mercy, that's negligence because it's just so taxing. But at the end of the day, sometimes it is merciful. Sometimes your children do something, they screw up, they deserve a punishment and you just say, you know what, you were sorry or whatever, I'm just going to move past it. I mean, wouldn't that be great that your parents sometimes don't always give you what you deserve or do you just want every spanking, every single time you do wrong, you want your parents to have to gripe you out and to have to sit you down and have to pay back every single penalty and every single fine. I mean, if your kid spills milk at the store, he has to pay back that milk. You know, I mean, is that really how you want your parents to treat you? No, I don't want my parents to treat me like that. And I don't want God to treat me that way either. When I accidentally spill the milk, quote unquote, whenever I make a little mistake here and there, I don't want God to have the exact of me every single penny, every single dime. But we have to understand is that would be just. It's not that we're not talking about that being just. That is just. We want to go above that though. Sometimes we want to have mercy. Now let's see what the law says. Exodus 21 verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for hood, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe or stripe. So what is the law? The law is that no matter what you do to harm someone, essentially you would receive the exact same punishment. Go to Leviticus 24. Let's show you this again. So when Jesus is talking about the eye for nine, tooth for tooth, that is a biblical concept. It's not that it's not a biblical concept. It's not that it isn't just. We want to balance all of these concepts in the Bible. Look at Leviticus 24 and look at verse 19. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so shall it be done to him. Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. Isn't that the same teaching that we read? Go to Deuteronomy chapter 19. Deuteronomy chapter number 19. One more place I'll show you. This teaching is found many places in scripture that what would be just is to receive exactly as you've done unto others. Isn't that kind of the golden rule? You know, quote unquote, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you, which follows principles of the Bible like you're going to reap what you sow, you know, in essence. And God oftentimes will give the exact punishment to people of whatever they dreamed up or whatever they wished or whatever they did to other people, they get that same punishment. You know, Pharaoh throws baby boys in the river, so then God throws them in the river. You know, Haman builds a gallows for Mordecai and he gets hung on his own gallows. You know, the presidents want to throw Daniel in the lion's den, they get thrown in the lion's den. So oftentimes, whatever they dream up, God goes ahead and says, you know what, that's the exact punishment you're gonna get. Joseph Rosenbaum hurts minors, minors hurt him. How else could you dream that up? It's like God has a sense of humor, doesn't he? Deuteronomy chapter 19, look at verse 17. Then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition and behold if the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother, then shall you do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother. So shalt thou put the evil away from among you and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. And then I shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Again, we could find this teaching in the Bible over and over and look, the point of me showing you this is to make it clear that there's nothing wrong with these teachings, okay? This is a biblical concept and for us to understand that the Bible is complex in the sense that it does not address only one aspect of life, it addresses all aspects of life. It addresses the individual, it addresses the family, it addresses the church, it addresses society, it addresses nations, it addresses all these different elements and they all are going to have their different spheres of influence and their own different rules that are going to be different from one another, okay? A lot of these rules that we're reading are for a civilization. They're basically your civil and criminal laws that we would have in a society helping us to understand how a society should work. And if you don't have laws like this, how could you expect for people to behave themselves appropriately? We need to have criminal laws, we need to have civility, and to have civility, we need to have punishment. And that punishment, according to the Bible, is to receive exactly that which you've done unto others. And in order for civility to exist, we need judgment, okay? So there's nothing wrong with these laws, we need them, we should be exercising them on a regular basis. But if you did not have these laws, if you had no laws, you would also have something else, no mercy, right? In order for there to be mercy, there has to be a law, right? There has to be a punishment, there has to be a judgment. Otherwise, what do you need mercy for? Mercy is clear, you don't deserve it, or you've done something wrong, some kind of transgression is not being applied to you. If you are perfect, I mean, how much mercy does Jesus need? He doesn't need any because he's perfect, you know? He doesn't need the grace, he doesn't need, obviously while he was on this earth, you know, that's a different scenario, but I'm just saying the God in heaven doesn't need any grace, he doesn't need any mercy in the sense that he's perfect. Anything that he gets, he deserves. He deserves all the honor and the glory and the praise and everything, all the blessings that we give him, he's worthy of that. That's not us being merciful to God and giving it to him, okay? That's us recompensing what was due unto him, okay? Or returning that glory. So, in order to have mercy, you have to first establish judgment. Now, sometimes in the Bible, God will grant mercy unto people which would be in contradiction to what's just, okay? So, if you would do Psalms 82 for a moment, go to Psalms 82 for a moment, but what you have to understand is that would be necessary for both to exist. You have to have both in order for either to exist. Without judgment, there's no mercy, okay? And so, both exist together and it's great because God gets to show both aspects of who he is. God is not just merciful, he's also just. God's not just just, he's also merciful. You know, and if there was a God that said you had to work your way to heaven, he would only be just, he would not be merciful. That's where some people get confused is they would say this, they think, well, I think that you should have to work your way to heaven because you should have to do right. Well, it is true that that would be just to receive what you deserve, but there's a problem for all of sin to come short of the glory of God. So, your logics sound in the sense that we should do right and that should be an expectation. The problem is God looked down and realized, well, everyone's, you know, going to hell then and God's not willing that any should perish but also come to repentance. So, God gets to show another aspect of who he is saying I'm willing to even be merciful to those that don't deserve it. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, okay? But there's nothing wrong with justice in and of itself. In fact, for the most of humanity, they're going to hell, meaning they're going to get exactly what's just. We're going to see justice poured out on a major scale. In fact, God's justice, you know, from a number or quantity of people is going to be more than mercy because few are saved, okay? Depending on how you want to quantify that or look at that. Now, look at Psalms 82 verse 1. God's standard in the congregation of the mighty, he judgeth among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked, Selah? Defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy. Read them out of the hand of the wicked. Now, here's what we have to understand. We must have balance in our life and you have to balance the scriptures because if you just take one verse and run with it, you can end up violating a lot of the rest of the Bible, okay? Sometimes people like cling to a particular verse not realizing they need to balance it with other verses in the Bible. Like this morning, I talked about Jesus said, love your enemies, right? What if that was just my life's motto? You know, that's the only verse I know in the Bible. I could get pretty imbalanced, couldn't I? I could start loving people that the Bible's kind of saying like, whoa, you know, Jeffrey Dahmer here, you know, like Hitler. I mean, who loves Hitler? No one would say it if they did, you know. I mean, you can't love everybody. That becomes a bizarre attitude. Or what if I took, you know, an opposite verse? What if I combined two verses? The Bible says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema marinatha. And the Bible says, and this is the love of God that you keep his commandments. Therefore, every single person that doesn't keep every single commandment perfectly to be cursed, right? Wouldn't that be kind of a foolish clumping of verses there and kind of an imbalanced view of the scripture and not really taking? So, it's very easy to get imbalanced with the word of God. That's why false teachers, they have no idea what they're saying. They're desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor where they affirm. We need to balance the scripture. And when it comes to justice and mercy, we too, as Christians, have a responsibility on a daily basis to balance the idea of justice and mercy. Now, when should I extend mercy and when should I extend justice? Well, I don't know. Let's see, when someone's a repeat child offender, you think we should extend the mercy branch or the judgment branch? Probably the justice branch. Now, you say, why? Well, let's think about this. If I extend this person mercy, who am I not extending mercy to? All the children they're going to molest in the future, right? All the kids that they're going to hurt and kill later and do more damage to. But let's think of another person about David. David committed adultery and murder and God did not punish him with a death penalty. Well, let me ask the question, did David ever commit adultery and murder again in the way that he did? That was pretty much his one transgression. So, because I guess he learned his lesson, it was very sorrowful over his sin, God, instead of giving him what was just, gave him mercy. And David's a pretty influential person. He's a pretty important person. So, obviously, God deemed it necessary to say, you know what? I'm going to give David mercy on this account. How about Moses? Moses killed a man. What did God give him? Did God give him justice or did God give him mercy? He gave him mercy. Did Moses ever kill anybody ever again? No. In fact, Moses pretty much lays down his life for the children of Israel on a repeated basis, even being an intercessor to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, it makes sense why God's extending mercy to these men, but is he extending mercy to Pharaoh? No, he kills him. He throws him in the sea. Okay, he throws him in the Red Sea and drowns him. So, there's going to always be a balance as far as when you say justice, when you say mercy. Here's a good rule of thumb. What's the person's response to being found guilty? Is the person taking ownership of their sin? Did Saul take ownership for his sin? Not really. So, he pretty much gets justice. David takes ownership for his sin. It's mercy, doesn't he? Pharaoh, does he take ownership for his sin? No. Moses, does he take ownership for his sin? Yeah. Okay. So, the ownership, the person's response, that's going to come into a big play on when you want to balance justice and mercy. But here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to be a person that never extends mercy because then God will say, okay, you don't want to extend mercy to anybody? Then I want to extend mercy unto you. Let me prove this from the Bible. Go to Matthew chapter 7 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter number 7. And I'm kind of building a foundation here and then I want to lay a real specific application in a moment. But we don't want to be people who will only judge people and only give them exactly what they deserve. We want to be a people that will be merciful to people and, not treat them the way that they treat us, but rather treat them the way that Jesus wants us to treat them. How would Jesus treat them? And we see Jesus being merciful to a lot of different people. How about when he's on the cross and he's saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. But wait a minute, what did he say in Matthew 23 to the scribes and Pharisees? Hypocrites, you know, you've chosen up the devil. How can you escape the devil? Was he spending a lot of mercy there, a lot of grace? No, but it's based on their knowledge level, isn't it? It's based on certain factors and he's judging a righteous judgment and he's wanting to be merciful and gracious unto people. And you know, we should try to be very merciful, just not with the wrong person. Matthew chapter 7, look at verse 1. Judge not, they be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. For why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So the Bible gives us a really strong warning when it comes to judging. And here's the essence of this passage. It's saying that whatever judgments you make towards other people, you better be careful that that's the exact judgment you want applied to you. Meaning, if you're going to sit there and judge someone's sin or judge the way they look or judge the way they talk or judge the way they dress, then you better be prepared to have the exact same judgment aimed towards you. Are you okay with that? That's why it's best to try and be real merciful in general and say like, you know what, maybe that guy is having a bad day. Maybe that guy said something dumb, you know. But then there's going to be certain lines that you're going to say it doesn't matter. If I cross that, I would want someone to hold me to the same standard. You know, the Apostle Paul makes it clear when he's caught, you know, from the Jews, the Jews drag him out of the temple, and he's taken with the Romans, he's going through all this legal battle. He says if he's done something worthy of death, he refuses not to die. Saying that the Apostle Paul says, I hold the same standard of the capital punishment for the people that are worthy of death, apply that to me, please. He's not being a hypocrite about that. But at the same time, you know, he's also very merciful to the Jews who are rejecting Christ and everything like that throughout his ministry. What would be an example of these things? Well, here's some lines that I want to hold for myself and everybody. How about 1 Corinthians, chapter number 5 on church discipline? Hey, I'm all for exercising church discipline on people. You know, if I'm a railer, if I'm a drunker, if I'm an extortioner, I too should be church discipline if unrepentant. You know, it's not like, well, he's the pastor or whatever. Well, just the pastor gets to have that judgment on others, but he himself should not be judged by the same standard. No. If a pastor is a proven railer, is a proven extortioner, is a proven drunkard, or any of the statutes listed there, probably not an idolater or any of those. But you know, if he's any of those things on that list, if he would throw someone out for doing the exact same thing he did, then you know what? He's being a hypocrite when he doesn't throw himself out. You know, capital punishment laws. Hey, I'm fine with that. Let's please, please enforce those when it comes to murder, when it comes to all these different things. So here's a good rule of thumb. Whenever you're going to condemn someone or you're going to judge someone, you have to think about it this way. What if my best friend did it? What if my spouse did it? What if my son did it? What if I did it? And if you say it's the same for every single person, then that might be a good judgment. But if you're saying, well, if my son did it, well, if my brother did it, well, if I did it, it would be different because I have a better heart than they do. You know, that's basically being a hypocrite about the situation. You know, here would be an example, teaching damnable heresy. Hey, you should mock me and ridicule me and call me out and make fun of me. Look, I'm not going to reserve judgment for that kind of a situation because I would hope that the exact same standard would be applied to me. Because this isn't like, well, we can all differ on the timing of the rapture or something like that. I mean, this is, you know, if it's damnable heresy, you know, there should be no toleration to that. But what about other doctrines? There's plenty of doctrines where I try to show mercy. You know, if someone's pre-trib, I don't just, you know, yell at them and scream at them and say they're a heretic and a loser. You know, I would even fellowship with pastors that are pre-trib. I would fellowship with pastors that are wrong about lots of things. You know, lots of different issues. What about the King James Bible? No. So we have to figure out where we have standards, where we have, you know, our boundaries, and that takes discretion. And we all want to have a healthy balance of justice and mercy. If you're only justice, then you're going to end up becoming a Pharisee legalist. If you're only mercy, you're going to become Joel Osteen, okay, and Joyce Meyer and whatever, these compromising liberals that are for everybody. They're for the pedophile. I'm for everybody. You know, I'm for Joe Biden. You know, literally, these liberal Christians, they'll get up and they'll advocate for years. You know, for a couple of years, like vote Trump, vote Trump, vote Trump, vote Trump, vote Trump. The left is the devil. They're evil. They're wicked. And then they get elected and they're just like, let's pray for Biden. And you're just like, what in the world? You know, it's just like, just love everybody. You know, everybody's great. That's not what the Bible teaches, but at the same time, we want to be careful how we judge people. Now go through it to Matthew, chapter number 18 for a moment. I'm sorry, do 19 first. I want to go there first. Matthew chapter 19. Let's talk about a real specific example now that we've kind of gotten some general application or general principles laid. Matthew 19, look at verse three. The Pharisees also came on him, tempting him and saying on him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cost? 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 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 had joined together, let not man put us under. Now, if you just stop reading, wasn't that real clear? Hey, can we divorce our spouse for every cause? And what's Jesus answer? No. Now then they ask him more questions. Okay. Then they say, they say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except to be for fornication and shall marry another, committed 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. But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they whom it is given. Now, when it comes to the topic of marriage and divorce, probably one of the most offensive teachings in the Bible, Jesus makes it very clear that it's very offensive. I mean, he's saying all men cannot receive this thing. Is everybody going to agree with what I'm about to teach? The answer is no. Okay. But the Bible is very clear that divorce is always wrong. That you should never divorce. Now, honestly, here's the reality, though. We live in America where 50% of people are divorced. And look, even in this room, there's plenty of people that have been divorced or remarried. And I don't hate you. I'm not mad at you. I don't even care, honestly. But at the same time, if you have committed that sin, you shouldn't shy away from the fact that it's a sin just because you've committed it. Just because it's wrong. Okay. You should agree with whatever the scripture teaches and you should stay married to whoever your 15th spouse. I mean, this is the one that's going to stick. Okay. I mean, if it's Ken Hovind, I don't know what is he on, five? Which that's not even marriage. That guy's just an adulterer. I don't want to go off on that. I do, but I'm going to save it. He deserves a whole sermon, probably. The cult leader he is. But here's the thing. Divorce, by Jesus' standard, he says, let not man put asunder. He doesn't even put a caveat. Now, they bring up the law, which does have a caveat, right? It said saving for the cause of fornication. But what is Jesus' interpretation of this particular law? Notice how he describes it in verse eight. Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you. Now, does that sound like a ringing endorsement? That doesn't sound like he was saying this is a really good idea. He's saying what? Yeah, it is lawful. It is just. But does that mean it's the right thing to do? Is it the best thing that you could possibly do? And the answer, according to Jesus, is no. Because he's saying even from the beginning, it was not so. Now, go to Matthew chapter one. Go to Matthew chapter one. I'm going to show you a few verses here. And I want to explain how to understand some of these verses in the Bible. Now, what is fornication? It's going to bed with someone that you're not married to. So a lot of times, that'll confuse somebody. You say, well, how does that work? How, if you're married, can you commit fornication? And the answer is you can't. If you're married, you can only commit adultery. Because adultery is going to bed with someone that you're not married to. One person's married, and they're not married to each other in the joining of these two people. It's always adultery. The fornication is talking about a prior sin that had happened before the marriage that basically either put shade on the marriage or caused the marriage to be somewhat fraudulent or based on false premises or something like that. And when it comes to Mary and Joseph, Jesus's physical earthly, you know, stepfather and mother, Joseph at first was confused about the virgin birth. He didn't know that she had conceived as a virgin. And look, if your wife conceived, you wouldn't believe that it was immaculate conception, okay? And if it wasn't you, right? You would be like, what happened, okay? You would put two and two together. You can't really blame Joseph for not having believed immaculate conception immediately, right? It took an angel to be like, look, buddy, this was of the Holy Ghost, okay? But when he finds out, look at verse 19, Matthew 1 verse 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. So when he thinks, this is before he understands it's of the Holy Ghost, when he thinks that she's committed some type of fornication and gotten pregnant out of wedlock, he has an opportunity to do two different things according to the law, okay? Now, the Bible describes Joseph as being a just man. Now, what's justice? Getting exactly what you deserve, okay? Now, let's go to Deuteronomy 24. Deuteronomy 24, what would be the just? Putting her away. What would be the privily is showing her some grace, okay? Showing her some grace. But let's see what the law has to say. Deuteronomy 24, look at verse number one. 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, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. So, according to the Bible, a man is married, he finds out that his wife has some uncleanness, which would be related to the fornication that we have outlined, and because of that, he doesn't want to be with this woman anymore, and so he gives her a bill of divorcement, she goes out, and notice, according to the law, it says she may go and be another man's wife. This has to be in what's referenced, what Jesus is saying, because he says the only lawful way to have been married and then remarried, and it not be adultery, is if it was for the cause of fornication. That is the one exception, okay? Also, the law cannot prescribe sin, because the law itself is righteous. The law itself is spiritual. We are carnal, okay? So, if the law is allowing her to get remarried in this specific, you know, provision, that means it's not a sin. So, what would this look like today? Today, we don't really have this, but the closest thing, and again, I'm not saying it's exact, I'm just saying the closest thing is an annulment, okay? Two people get married, like, from a physical ceremony. They have the ceremony, they sign the marriage license, they're all excited, but I don't know exactly all the different state laws, you can look them up, but I believe Texas has an annulment provision. Let's say you don't consummate the marriage, you decide, you know what, we were drunk when we did it, or something, or we were stupid, and I don't actually want to be married to this person, and we didn't even lie together. You can go in to the state and basically say, we want to file an annulment, and it's as if you were never married. It basically just disqualifies the marriage, it's not technically lawful or a binding anymore, and then you just get to move on. We have to understand about American history, in Texas history, and all these different states, is divorce was not just granted whenever you want it. You know, even was, you couldn't just say, like, I don't like them anymore, let's divorce, they wouldn't just grant that to you, but an annulment would be granted based on these circumstances. Only recent when we have the no-fault divorce and other provisions like that, that are not biblical, that don't actually make any sense, they're not scriptural or anything like that. The annulment is the closest thing, and it's pretty much based on this premise, but the state law isn't necessarily the exact same cause that this has, where he finds her not a mate. Basically, according to the Bible, what it's saying is, you find out she's not really a virgin on the wedding night, and so you end up deciding, well, I thought you were a virgin, I wanted to be with a virgin, and because of that, I'm going to divorce you and you're not going to be my wife. Go to Deuteronomy 22, go back, there's another example in the Bible. Now, the first passage we read is one option. What was option number one? You could divorce her, right? Here's option two, okay? Option two, verse 13. If any man take a wife and go in under and hate her, give occasions of speech against her and bring up an evil name upon her and say, I took this woman and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Word made there is meaning a virgin. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate. The damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter and this man to wife, and he hated her. And lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid, and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity, and they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of the city shall take that man and chastise him, and 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, but if this thing be true and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house and the men of her city. Thou stoner with stones that she die because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her father's house, so shalt thou put evil away from among you. Now here's the same situation in essence. Man marries a woman. It's based on fraud. She says, I'm a virgin. She's lying or it's false or the father's lying, whatever. Somehow it's fraud. He figures it out and, you know, avoiding the first caveat here that it was actually lying about, it's actually true, she would be put to death. Now the tokens of virginity, that's because a woman that's a virgin has a hymen, anatomically speaking, which is broken upon marriage, okay? And, you know, it's kind of interesting because obviously their custom must have been a little bit interesting, but if you think about Song of Solomon, whenever she talks about being with her husband, he talks about bringing him into her mother's chamber, and obviously the parents are the ones that are in possession of the token of virginity. So apparently the parents are the ones that lay out the cloth that has basically the token from the blood, and that is what they keep and hang on. I mean, you talk about weird keepsakes. I mean, your parents keep your hair and your teeth and whatever. I mean, they're keeping a cloth from the wedding night, okay? But it was to protect the daughter from having some, you know, issue, some kind of a buyback program, you know? All sales are final, you know, as it were, all right? Because it's saying, if the parents can produce that token and the guy's lying about it or whatever and wants to divorce his wife for any other reason, he can't. That was the only reason that you could ever divorce was basically you thought you were marrying a virgin and you got to see him. Because how can you know? You can't know. There's no way to know if they're lying or they're telling the truth, but you can know on the wedding night. And so basically it's saying that was your one option. It was a one-time thing. As soon as that's over with and you accept the deal, you're done. You know, you're basically settled with this woman. Notice the law is saying you can never divorce her for any reason. If, in Matthew chapter 18, and just think with me for a moment, Jesus is saying the only reason you could divorce someone is fornication. If that fornication means something else, like adultery, then that wouldn't be true, would it? These would be contradictory statements. But they're actually both true because the only reason was the fornication, which is the example listed in the law, which is what Jesus brought up. They're even asking about Moses specifically. So we have to find somewhere in Moses where Jesus gave a provision for divorce, okay? It's only here. So you have two options, okay? Option one, divorce. Option two, the stoner, okay? Which of those two is more merciful? Wouldn't you say the divorce one? I would. I mean, I would say that's nicer than just making a public example out of her. Now think back to Matthew chapter number one about Joseph. Being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, put her away gravely. That's what he was going to do. That's what he thought about. That's what he wanted to do. So is he showing some form of grace? I would say yes, because I believe he had two options. But he's also being really just just here. There's a third option. What's the third option? To just keep her anyways, right? Wouldn't that be the third option? And you'd say, well, God would never expect me to do that. Well, he did expect that of Hosea, didn't he? And in fact, he showed himself to be very merciful to the children of Israel and the children of Judah, even though they hoard against him many different times. And what was Jesus' opinion of it? Oh, it was because of the hardness of your hearts that you would do so. So what if you had a tender heart? Even if she had lied to you, even if it was a fraud, you could still keep her. You could still be with her, which would be ultimately the most merciful thing according to the scripture. Go to Malachi chapter number two, Malachi chapter number two. The Bible makes it clear you should never divorce. It shouldn't even be an option. For a Christian who believes the Bible, who wants to follow God's commandments, once he says, he'll death do his part, he's supposed to mean it. It wasn't just a vain utterance. It wasn't just like, well, but there's some caveats. Here's the prenuptial agreement. Now, you should never sign a prenuptial agreement. That doesn't fly with scripture. There should just basically be, they'll death do his part. I meant what I said. I'm going to keep that oath. I'm going to keep that promise. Jesus said from the beginning, that's how it was. And that's why the men are saying like, well, then who wants to get married? He's saying like, well, why in the world would I ever get married if I can never get rid of her? But think about that. Think about this. Jesus marries us and can never get rid of us. I like that. I like that he says, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And I like it when Jesus gives his vow. He's not just like, well, some of you, I like it that Jesus just says, I'm going to keep you forever. And some of y'all don't deserve it. All of us don't deserve it. None of us deserve Jesus's love. None of us deserve Jesus's mercy and grace. And you know what? That's the same model we should show for our children and due to our spouse is we should just love them unconditionally after being married. I mean, obviously, you know, there's some people find themselves in a weird scenario where they're married to like a literal reprobate or something. Okay. At that point, I would probably, I mean, I'm going to distance myself in the person and I'm going to stay away from them, but I still wouldn't even divorce them if I wanted to follow God's commands. I'm not saying that I wouldn't just because I might sin, but I'm saying if I was going to be right with God, I wouldn't do it. Now, Jesus makes it very clear though, whenever you divorce your spouse, you're committing adultery. And let me explain this. The divorce is not the adultery. It's being with someone else. But Jesus just knew how unrealistic it was for people to commit to divorce and not end up lying with anybody else for the rest of their life. It's hard to, you know, eat for 30 years and then decide you're never going to eat again. Okay. It's hard to be married for a certain amount of time and then just say, oh, I'm just, now I'm celibate all of a sudden. It's like, you can't just press that button. You know, that's why it's stupid. All these Catholic priests that want to be celibate, basically, they're just hinting up all these, you know, desires and they put them in the wrong places, don't they? That's why it's good for a man to not be alone. Why it's good for a man to have his own wife, you know, and because he's going to fall in these areas of temptation if he doesn't have a proper way to deal with that desire. Malachi chapter 2, look at verse 12. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and in that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that regardeth not the offering anymore, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant? And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord the God of Israel saith, That he hateth putting away. For one cover the violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. Notice what the Bible says. God hates putting away. God doesn't want that. God doesn't like that. Oh, well, the law prescribes it. Look, the law prescribes a lot of things. It's not necessarily always a recommendation. The Bible gives you provisions of how to be married to two women, but that's not a recommendation. You know, the Bible tells the king how to behave himself in the law, but guess what? God never wanted a king. Just because the law says something doesn't mean you should do it. You know, according to Texas law, it's lawful to drink alcohol, but you shouldn't do it. You know, there's lots of things that you can do, but not all things are expedient. Not all things are right, you know, and God has to provide laws in the Bible that help people that are in bad situations. It's like, well, what do I do now that I'm married to two wives? And, you know, what do I do now that we do have a king? And then what do I do now that we have screwed up and have all these problems? He tries to give, you know, various laws and suggestions. Sometimes you can find yourself in a weird situation though, okay? Like Willie Nelson or whatever, when he says he's his own grandpa, you know, I don't know how to fix that one. Whatever, I am my own grandpa or something. At that point, you're just, you're doomed, okay? Now go to Psalms 112. Go to Psalms 112. Why teach a sermon on this? Well, here's the thing. First of all, we need to have judgment with mercy, not judgment without mercy. We don't want to be that type of person. And if you've already purposed in your heart and you say, you know what, I'm going to follow what the Bible teaches. I'm going to take divorce out of my vocabulary for my marriage. Not an option. I'm not going to threaten it. Not an idea. It's not a suggestion. It's not something I'm ever going to do. And you say, you know what, I'm stuck with you. You know, just imagine you're Siamese twin. He's usually stuck. That's what the Bible says, one flesh, right? Then you should want to have the best relationship you can possibly have with that person. And when you are stuck with someone, you're going to be motivated to make your situation good at all times. Whenever you got one foot out the door, a lot of times you're going to be motivated to not treat the person right. When divorce is on the table, oftentimes it's a fight. It's basically a test or it's a game to each other to see who can get the first one to quit. I'm just being honest. And look, everybody that's married to an ex, their ex is the devil and a reprobate and a bad person. That's why I don't take much stock in it. Pretty much everybody that has an ex or whatever, they're always the most wicked person ever. It's the devil's ex-wife or something. It's like they didn't want to give it a chance because they decided a long time ago they were done. And when both parties get done, they're basically just trying to push each other out the door. They're just trying to see who can be the biggest jerk and do the worst things imaginable. But whenever you decide you're stuck with that person, you're not trying to shove them off the boat. You're going to say, I'm going to be as nice to you and kind to you and as merciful to you as possible. That's why it actually really helps marriages to teach that you can never divorce. You know what really hurts marriages? Teaching that divorce is an option. And we see in America today, Christian church after Christian church advocating all manner of divorce, all manner of options of divorce. The pastor's divorced and remarried multiple times. Well, now the congregation is going to start doing it. I've been part of churches where there was a couple that divorced and then they remarried and they were in the same young adult class together. And it was just, it was just like bizarre. And I'm just like, and then I've been in there where the guy gets married to a young girl and a few months later they get divorced and then he marries another young girl in the church. And I'm thinking like, how many times are you going to let that happen, Ken Hovind? And notice that the second marriage didn't last very long, Kent. The third didn't last very long. The fourth, they're not even real marriages, frankly speaking. But at the end of it, you know, isn't it weird that the second marriage has a higher rate of divorce than the first? You would think you would get better, right? Like usually practice makes perfect. It's the exact opposite because they've already proven that divorce is an option for them. And when you've already proven that divorce is an option for you, you're not going to put as much effort and energy into the marriage. And I'm not saying that you're doomed if you've been divorced or married. But what I am saying is this, you have to decide now to take it off the table. You have to decide now, I'm never going to do it. I'm just going to love my spouse unconditionally. I'm just going to do good unto them all the days of my life like I vowed to God. No one forced you. We don't have any like child brides or mail-order brides, right, Duncan? We don't have any. No, I'm just kidding. Everybody here voluntarily married each other, right? I'm just saying like we don't have any weird scenarios. But even if you were in a marriage that you didn't, just choose to love your spouse. Choose to do good on your spouse all the days of your life and show them mercy and show them grace and embrace the teaching of the Bible. You know what? God has joined together, let not man put asunder. And you know, the people that have been divorced, they could tell you the horrors of it. I'm sure there's someone out there that would lie to you, but every person that I've ever met has basically explained that divorce is like the worst thing they've ever been through. It breaks their heart, it breaks their children's hearts, everyone loses. The only people that win in divorce are the lawyers and they are wicked people. They should say, you know what? Divorce is not biblical. I'm going to quit my job and get an honest job. Divorce lawyers are scummy. You know, and I hate they're this stupid billboard. I always drive by when I'm going to Houston, it's always for divorce. And it used to have this thing was like, divorce your spouse and get half the closet. And I was like, joke's on you. I don't even have half the closet. But I'm like, what a wicked person to say, hey, just take your spouse's heart and trash it for more clothes. What kind of a wicked message is that? Kind of a stupid message is that? I'd rather just burn all my clothes and start over with this shirt on my back than to trash my spouse. What kind of stupid, wicked message is this world living in? And obviously, it's working. Why else would they be putting billboards up? And so many people are destroying their lives and destroying their marriages and destroying their families through divorce. It's a wicked doctrine, and we need to preach against it. And when your friends come up to you and say, I don't know what I think you should be like, the Bible says no. God says no. Don't do it. And if you're around people that are encouraging to divorce, stop being their friend immediately. Because your spouse is more important than any other friend. And you shouldn't let anybody sit there and whisper, you don't deserve that, honey. You deserve better. How come everyone deserves better? How can that be true? How can the guys tell their friend, guy friend, you deserve better, and then tell the girl that you deserve better? I mean, how does that work? How does everybody deserve better? I mean, sometimes your friends should be honest and be like, you probably can't do better. Like, you need to stick this one out, buddy. You hit the jackpot. I don't know what you're doing messing that up, you know. And you say, well, but you don't know my situation, Pastor Shelley. I do. Because your situation is you should never divorce. Some people come to me like, you don't know my scenario. And I'm like, I do. It's never divorced. Anybody that comes through asking me for marriage advice, and they want to know if divorce is an option, I always just give them a sounding no. Not an option. I don't care. You could tell me every horrible thing you want to tell me about your spouse, and I'll never tell you to divorce them for any reason. Obviously, like I said, the one caveat is if they're a psychopathic, child molesting, reprobate or something, please call the police and stay away from them physically. But I still don't recommend divorce because all you're gonna do is still give a lot of your assets to a lawyer. And in fact, you know, if you're a woman in this scenario, just staying away from them physically, you're gonna have a better chance protecting your children than letting a judge decide. Because a judge might give you a court order literally granting them privileges to your children and telling them they have access to their children. And by divorcing them, you're allowing them to legally marry another person and ruin another person. You should just say, that's my reprobate and I'm gonna keep them away from everybody. Okay? He's mine, and I'm not letting them go. You know? Why not? At the end of the day, you know he's a dangerous predator. You know, lock up that ox that you've known to push and pass time and don't let it push anybody else. Don't let it hurt and damage someone else. And it's a hard saying, but remember how Jesus started out? All men cannot receive this thing. But I'm not here to tell you what you like to hear. I'm just here to tell you what God said. That's my job. Look at Psalms 112, verse 5. A good man shows favor and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Now, what I've taught you is not just easy black and white. It takes a little bit of study. It takes a little bit of effort to apply, when do I exercise judgment and justice and when do I exercise mercy? But please, please make sure that you're extending both in your life. Don't be an only mercy person. Don't be an only justice person. You need to find a healthy balance. You need to find the boundaries of when to say no to mercy and you should have a lot of mercy in your life. That would be a good healthy balance. Go to Proverbs 19, the last place I'll have you turn. Proverbs chapter 19. You know, when we think about back to the verse we started with, the Bible says, mercy rejoices against judgment. Mercy is a great thing. You know, we're going to be in heaven singing of the mercy of the Lord, not the justice of the Lord for the majority. I mean, we'll sing the justice when we get to see all the wicked thrown in hell, but then the majority of the time we're going to be singing the mercy that we didn't get thrown in hell and all the grace that God gave us and we have a healthy balance. Proverbs chapter 19, look at verse 11. The discretion of a man deferred his anger and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. You know, you don't have to always render eye for eye, tooth for tooth, eye for life. You need to be a person that's willing to turn the other cheek at times, give people the benefit of the doubt when it's appropriate, but it's going to take, you know, a study of the Word of God and being filled with the Spirit and using discretion to know when to do that. I'm not going to show favor and mercy to raging heretics, to pedophiles. I have certain boundaries where I'm saying, you know what, this person crossed a particular boundary and I'll say this, we're all going to have a little bit of variance there. Not everybody's going to agree a hundred percent on exactly where those lines are. So, you should also not expect everybody to have the exact same boundaries as you, unless it's a clear-cut Bible verse. You know, it's 1st Corinthians 5, all right, clear-cut Bible verse, right? If it's, you know, something that's real clear in the Bible, but some areas you're going to say, why didn't you give this person mercy? Well, that's not for you to decide. That's for them to decide if they want to show justice or mercy in those various situations. We just want to all make sure that we're in line with God's Word and we're all working on our own discretion as we go through life. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the capability of understanding righteous judgment through the Word of God. I pray that we wouldn't lean on our own understanding, but we would just trust in the Lord with all our heart and that we would realize that your judgments and your ways are always above ours, that marriage is a lifelong commitment, and that people would take it seriously. They wouldn't take it lightly, they wouldn't think it's just a joke or something that's light, but rather they would take it as a very sobering and serious commitment. And I pray that you would help people in this room that if they've been struggling with divorce or the idea or struggling in their marriage, that they would realize that they should just make it work and do the best that they can and just extend as much grace as they can to their spouse and to love their spouse all the days of their life, just like you love us for all the days of our lives, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. With that, let's go ahead and sing one more song before we head home. If you'll take out your hymnal again. It's a 102. He hideth my soul. In that song, 102, He hideth my soul. All together on the first. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand and covers me there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand and covers me there with His hand. With numberless blessings each moment He crowds and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture all glory to God for such a redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand and covers me there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness, transported I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful love, I'll shout with a million songs high. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand and covers me there with His hand. Amen. Thank y'all for coming. God bless y'all. you