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

The verse I wanted to focus my sermon on was in verse 3 where the Bible read. 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? Therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What they were God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And the title of the sermon this morning is, Never Divorce. Never Divorce. We see, what is the Pharisees response? They say, Hey, can we put away for every cause? And when they say put away, what they mean there is divorce. Can we get divorced for any reason? Is every reason a good reason to get divorced? And what does Jesus Christ answer? He says, Let not man put asunder. You know what his answer is? Never. Never. He says, Don't do it. Not at all. Well, of course, now in verse seven, what do they do? They start trying to bring up an exception. But what was Christ's response? Is Christ saying, Hey, there's lots of reasons why there's all these reasons. He just says, Don't do it. Period. You become one flesh. How can you put apart the one flesh, the union of a marriage? But we see in verse seven, what are the Pharisees saying? They say in them, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? So we see the definition of put away. They're saying divorcement, right? And we're saying they say command. They are emphasizing there's a command. What does Jesus say in verse eight? 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. Now use the word suffer. What does suffer there mean? It means allow or to permit. But he's not saying like, you should just get divorced. There's like this command where thou shalt get divorced. He's saying there's a provision in the law. There was an allowance of the law to where people in a certain exception could get divorced. But what does Christ say when they asked him very plainly at the beginning? He says, Never do it. Never get divorced. And so they ought to bring up this acceptor and say, Well, how come it was permitted by the law then? Why was there this allowance given? And he says, Because of the hardness of your hearts. But you know, if you have a perfect heart toward God, you would never get divorced. And Christ is telling us very clearly, you should never get divorced. Keep reading in verse nine. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commiteth 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 to whom it is given. So Christ, he explains this exception as saying the exception is only for fornication. Now on a cursory glance, that seems kind of strange, because fornication is when two people have, you know, relations together whom are not married. So you say, how could two people that are married be in this situation? Well, it's talking about something prior to the marriage, something before the marriage that's going to basically make that marriage void, or make that marriage not have some type of fraud that would discredit that union. Now I believe it's very clear, and I'm going to prove that even though this exception did exist in the law, that's not an exception that exists today. I believe there is no reason for divorce, period. If you're in this church, you say, hey, I want to come explain my situation to you and ask you what you should think. Never get divorced. You say, well, what about this situation? Never get divorced. What about that one? Never get divorced. There is not a situation. You cannot dream up a situation and come bring it to the pastor and ask when you should get divorced. And I'll say, oh, okay, well, that one, okay. There is never justification for divorce. And what does Jesus say? You say, where's your authority? Jesus Christ, let not man put asunder. Now let's understand what he's talking about, though, but before I get there, we're going to see that the spirit of the Pharisees is alive today. I mean, in 1970, we have the passing in the state of California, the no-fault divorce. What's the no-fault divorce? For every cause? I mean, it's basically what the Pharisees are saying, can we get divorced for any cause? And it used not to be so. I mean, for hundreds and hundreds of years, divorce was very looked down upon. Even the Catholic Church, which they're not saved, they don't believe the gospel, they don't know the Holy Ghost, even they would condemn divorce. Divorce has always been a very negative thing, but because we have one of the most wicked times of the world, we see that there's all kinds of sin, rampant and abounding. We see in this country, divorce is so rampant and it's so abounding. But is that what Christ wants for us? Is Christ saying, hey, you know, if the culture says divorce is okay, then let's get divorced. We see it came into being from Governor Ronald Reagan. Oh, all those Republican heroes, you know, that Reagan guy, he's so good. Well, guess what? He was divorced too. And then, shocker, he grants no-fault divorce laws in while he's in office, because of the adulterer that he is. Now, the United States has a lot of divorce. A lot of people hear the statistic that 50% of marriages end in divorce, but really that's from research and statistics of the 1980s. Currently, it's actually dropped. And praise the Lord, I hope it keeps dropping and keeps dropping. But it says about 42 to 45% of marriages in the United States will end in divorce. That's still very high though. That's still a big number. It says, if you break it down, the first time people get married, the percentage of divorce is 42 to 45%. But if this is their second marriage, that percentage goes up to 60%. So you say, oh man, I married the wrong person. I got to get to the next one. Well guess what? That next one's usually even worse off. Then the person that gets a third marriage, they're 73% likely to get divorced from that marriage. So it's not like people are getting divorced and then being more happy, happily living ever after, you know. All of a sudden, they just keep getting divorced and divorced and divorced. It's like this perpetual cycle. And you'd think just by the law of averages and just time, like eventually they would just keep in that marriage. But no, we see once you go down that dark road, it just keeps happening and happening and happening. The celebrities, you know, they're kind of like this display for us of what to not to do. And they just keep getting divorced, remarried and divorced, remarried. It's just, it's a wreck. According to the statistics, every 36 seconds there's a divorce in the United States. So I mean there's going to be like over 100 by the time this sermon is over with. I mean just another divorce and just another divorce. That's nearly 2,400 divorces a day. That's 876,000 divorces a year. And you know I would drive down in Phoenix when I lived there, there was all these signs and they would say $200 divorce just everywhere with these phone numbers. I mean divorce is something that people are taking a lot of money in because there's so much divorce today. The average length of the first marriage is about eight years according to statistics in the United States. It says the average age for couples going through divorce is 30 years old. It says three out of every four divorced people will remarry. So even though they've gone through a horrible tragedy of divorce, something that wrecks havoc on everybody's lives that are involved, three out of four, 75 percent are still going to get remarried again. And that's an important statistic to keep in our mind of why I don't agree with divorce in any circumstance. Because the only reason people get divorced is so they can get remarried. That's the purpose of divorce is so they would get remarried. Six percent of divorced couples end up remarrying each other. So even six percent of the people that get divorced they decide well that was a bad decision let's get remarried again. So they just basically give a bunch of their money to lawyers for no reason you know. Now go to Mark chapter number 10 if you would. Mark chapter number 10. Let's re-emphasize what Christ said because you say where are you getting all your doctrine from Pastor Shelley? From Jesus Christ. From the words of his mouth. Now we don't elevate you know any part of the Bible above another. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and through be truly furnished unto all good works. I'm not going to say all the red letters are better than the black letters. No it's all Jesus Christ's word. Now of course you still have to pay attention to the fact of well this is Jesus speaking and this is the devil speaking. Okay yeah we want to pay attention to who's speaking. But just because it's in the law doesn't mean it's less important than what Jesus said. And just because the Apostle Paul said it by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost doesn't mean it's inferior to what Jesus Christ said. But we see the clearest teachings on divorce come from Jesus Christ's own mouth. And he's saying never get divorced, never. Look at Mark chapter 10 verse 2, and the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife tempting him? So why are they asking these questions? They really care. They're trying to trap Jesus Christ. They're trying to get him to say and slip up and say something wrong. Look at verse 3, and he answered and said to them, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this Kyle 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. But therefore God had joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same manner and he saith unto them, whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, comitteth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she comitteth adultery. So this is such a radical preaching that Jesus Christ has, even after his disciples hear it, they're like, we need to clarify. Wait a minute Christ. Look at verse number 10. He says, and in the house his disciples asked him again, they're like, are you sure? Did I hear you right? Did you really say to never get divorced? And then he's like, look, if you do that, you're committing adultery. Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter number 22. I'll read for you. There's other places where Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5, he said, it has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery. Luke chapter 16, verse 18, whosoever put away his wife and marry another, comitteth adultery, and whosoever marry her that is put away from her husband, comitteth adultery. You say, why are you reading all those? Well, he said all of them, and it wasn't just the same time. We see he's telling the Pharisees, then he's telling his disciples privately, then he's going out and preaching in a new city, he's preaching the same message, he's using slightly different language, but it's the same message. We're not supposed to put away our wives for any reason. And he says, if you do it except for the provision in the law of fornication, it's always adultery. Now let's understand this provision of fornication. Let's make it clear what we're talking about. Look at Deuteronomy 22 verse 13. So we're going to talk about marriage and fornication and adultery all in this chapter. Let's get a good, clear picture. Verse 13, if a man take a wife and go in under her and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. So you say, what's fornication? It's that. When a person's not a maid, is she married? No. She's just not a virgin anymore because she lay with someone that's not her husband. Two people that are not married, that lie together, that's fornication according to the Bible. Look at verse 15. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel of virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate. And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hadeth 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 that 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 at the door of the father's house. And the men of her city shall stoner with stones that she die, because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the whore in her father's house. So shall thou put evil away from among you. Now in this passage, we learn a lot of different things. First of all, we see what fornication is. The fact that it's when a maid is not a maid, she's not a virgin on her wedding day. Not only that, we see in verse 17, this guy's looking for an excuse. He's trying to find a reason to divorce his wife. So it gives two possibilities. Either he's lying, or she's lying. So if he's lying, the parents have this built in protection to be able to have the token of virginity. Now I'm not going to go into graphic detail of what this is, but there is something that happens the first time a woman changes from being a maid to not being a maid anymore that provides a token and it's on the cloth. And this token was after the consummation of the marriage to be given unto the parents to provide their receipt, as it were, that she was a maid, that she was a virgin on her wedding night. It was a very serious deal. So now the parents have this ability. If someone's going to accuse her of not being a maid, well, no, here it is. Here's the proof that she actually is a maid. I gave you a maid. I watched over. I took care of her. I raised her for her 18, 19, 20, 25 years, whatever. And I presented unto you a maiden. Now we also see that if she was lying, there's a consequence for her too, but there's a consequence for him. It says in verse 19, they shall immerse him in a hundred shekels there. What's immerse? It means punish. It's like a financial punishment. So they're saying, if you're lying about this woman, you're just trying to make up an excuse to get a divorce and you're lying, you're going to have to pay her dad a hundred shekels of silver for bringing up this lot. But what happens if she really wasn't? What if she really was not a maid? The guy's thinking he's marrying this virgin. The dad thinks he's a virgin. The wife is claiming that she's a virgin. And then it finds out, well, actually she's not. Then what happens? Well, they would take her out and they would stone her with stones because she had played the whore. But notice what it says in verse 19. It says at the end, she shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. So if she was a virgin, okay, then there's no way that he could ever divorce her. Right? I mean, is that not what it just said? He would never be allowed to divorce her. Now what was the exception that they gave? Fornication. But here's the reality. If you've already been proven to be a maid on your wedding night, then it's impossible for you to be guilty of prior fornication. So then guess what? So what's the exception for getting divorced after that? None. Zero. You say, well, what if she commits adultery? Does it say, oh, well, if she commits adultery, then you could get divorced her. Now according to the law, adulterers were supposed to be put to death. And I still agree with that. I still believe that's what it should be. It should be a capital offense. But sometimes we live in societies where they don't do that anymore, where that's no longer the law. So you say, should you get divorced? No. Does it say, well, if, you know, the law is not going to put them to death, you can go ahead and get divorced. No. It says you may not put her away all the days of your life. So there's this one provision where there was fraud in the marriage. In that provision, they could say, well, the marriage was kind of nullified. It didn't really happen. And so there's this provision to put her away. Now in this case, they don't necessarily just put her away. They really put her away. I mean, this is putting her to death. OK. This is serious, though. Look at verse 22 now. So let's see what happens to adulterers. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so shall they put away evil from Israel. If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then he shall bring them both out under the gate of that city, and he shall stone them with stones that they die the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city, and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbor's wife, so thou shalt put away evil from among you. So here we learn if it's adultery, you put the adulterers to death. If the adulterer is in marriage or, according to this, engagement. So according to the Bible, when you're engaged, they would still call your fiancé, the French word that we like to use, OK? They would call the husband. So if I propose to my wife and we're engaged, I'm her husband, she's my wife, even though we technically haven't gotten married. And this is important to understand with Mary and Joseph. Keep your finger here because we're going to come back. But go to Matthew chapter number one. Matthew chapter number one. So we see adulterers are to be put to death according to the law. But what happens if you're living in a society where adulterers are not put to death? Is there another provision? Is there something that you could do? Well look at Matthew chapter one verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ is on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, look at this, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put away privilege. So what is Joseph described as to Mary? It's her husband. But it's because they're espoused. So according to the Bible, them being espoused, he's looked at as the husband, she's looked at as the wife, even though the marriage has not officially happened. And what is Joseph going to do? Now according to Israel law, he could put her to death because of this fornication. She's laid with a man that's not her husband and she cried not. Now let me give you a little side note. Rape is when you cry. You say, no, no, stop, no. That's when you get raped. And you know what happens in America? If you don't say that, the detective will say, oh, it must have been consensual. You want to be protected women? This is how you get protected from rape? You yell and scream no and stop and get away and rape and murder. And you know what, a lot of people will be frightened by the woman screaming and yelling that they will flee. Now you say, what about the guy that wouldn't? Well he wasn't going to anyways. It's always right for the woman to scream and yell. You say, I'm in that situation. He says if I scream, he'll shoot me. Let me give you a tip. If you scream and yell and he shoots you, he was going to shoot you anyways. And wouldn't you want to just die right then, them being forced and then being killed later? I'd rather just die. Guess what? Always scream. Always yell. This is what the Bible teaches. And the woman that's not screaming and yelling, well, maybe she was compelled. And it becomes a dark gray area. And unfortunately, if you want to be protected, you better scream. But we see with this woman, Mary, we know that she was conceived of the Holy Ghost. She wasn't a fornicator. She wasn't a whore. This was of the Holy Ghost. And that's why the angel comes and talks to Joseph and says, look, this is not the situation that you thought it was. But we see he was going to go through the provision of the law to put away his wife because he can't put her to death. They're not under Israel law, they're under Roman law. So go back to Deuteronomy chapter number 22. So we see why this provision would potentially exist. And we see even in this case, they're not even consummated the marriage yet. It's talking about a provision of you're engaged and your fiance commits adultery on you while you're engaged. And then you're like, well, I don't want to get married now. I mean, sometimes that kind of, you know, you could see how in someone's heart they could feel that way. Doesn't mean you have to. You can still get married to them. Now, what if someone was to commit fornication with their spouse, though? What if the spouse and the husband committed fornication? Could I get divorced for that reason? Because they talked about fornication. Well, look at Deuteronomy 22 verse 28. Let a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her and lie with her, and they be found. Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. So if the fornication was a result of you and yourself, that's not an exemption. That's not, well, we committed fornication, so now I can divorce her. No. He's saying if that was the case, well, guess what? You need to get married, and then you can never get divorced. You say, what about this revision? Never. Isn't the law being consistent? If this fornication example does not exist, is not present, then divorce is never an option. The only option is this example of fraud, basically. This example of this fornication fraud, where we see this virgin was not really a virgin. She lied about it. Whatever. Now go if you would to chapter 24. Skip over a couple chapters. Now it made it clear that you were basically going to put them to death. You say, but I thought they were talking about divorce. Well, that gives us the real clear indication of what they're talking about. Chapter 24 is going to give you the actual provision of the divorce. Look at verse 1. When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour 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 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 sendeth her out of his house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife. After that she is defiled, for that is abomination before the Lord. And thou shalt not cause the land of sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. So we see an example here, the provision that Joseph was going to enact. The fact that, hey, he found this uncleanness in her, what's the uncleanness? That she's somehow lying with a man, now she has a child by some other person. He doesn't know what's going on. Now he wants to put her away privily. But we see it's still for the case of fornication. There's not some other provision here. It's not like, oh, her teeth are kind of, you know, messed up. Or wow, she kind of stinks a little bit. Now I'm going to, you know, get divorced. She's not taking enough showers. So it's time to, you know, call up the lawyer and split the assets and whatever. No, it's talking specifically about fornication. And fornication is unclean. It's dirty. I preached a sermon called dirty whores. You know why? Because whoredom is dirty. Now if you're in the sin of fornication, the Bible just prescribes getting married. And once you get married, it's done. Okay, you're not, you're no longer in sin. You're no longer doing that which is wicked and wrong. You've made it right. But people that are in fornication, if you're big enough to lie with them, you're big enough to get married. You're old enough to figure out this is important enough for me to be with this person. Don't just use them like a harlot. And in this permission, in this permissible part of the law, we don't see this as a commandment, do we? Does it say when you find some uncleanness, divorce her. It's saying, hey, you have the option here. This is something that is permittable, but that doesn't mean that you have to do it. It doesn't mean that's something you even should do. It's just this is something that's permissible. And later we'll see where people enact this provision and I think that it was according to the law. But it no longer applies today. Now go back to chapter 23. Let's look at verse 21 of chapter 23. Because what does Christ keep saying? Let not man put asunder. And when you get married, there's a thing you do. It's called a marriage vow. Why? You promise to this person, till death do us part. You don't stand there and say, well, if I find some uncleanness or if I think you're kind of dirty or if you commit adultery or if I don't like you anymore or you're mean to me or you do something I don't like or whatever, he doesn't say, then I'll marry you. Till death do us part is what 99% of people say when they stand before God and man and declare they're going to be married to this person. They're going to be faithful to this person. They're going to love this person. They're going to support this person. And what does God think about vows? What does God think when you swear unto somebody that you're going to be married to them forever? Look at verse 21. When thou shalt, vow a vow, unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it. For the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it will be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform even a free will offering, according as thou has vowed in the Lord thy God, which thou has promised with thy mouth. So what does God think? When you make a promise, you better keep it. And God says if you don't keep it, it's a sin every time. He doesn't say, well, there's this exception where if you make a vow till death do us part, and then you part, it's sin every single time. And we even see a free will offering. So let's take it not just in a marriage, let's just apply it to something else. If you just say, hey, I have this extra 500 bucks, it's not my tithe money, it's not whatever, but you know what, Lord, I'm just going to give it to this person, or I'm going to give it to this church, I'm going to give it to this ministry or whatever. And God says, well, since you said that, you better do it now. He says even a free will offering, a free will offering means it was of your own accord. It wasn't a commandment. It wasn't something you had to do. But as soon as you tell God that that's what you're going to do, you're going to do it. Or God is going to make sure you get punished for it. It's a sin. You can't just go around just saying whatever you want. People ought to honor their word today. People ought to keep to what they say. If you say something, do it. Don't be a man that goes back on his word, going back on what he said. That's a detriment to society when you can't trust anything that anybody says. Why promise? Okay. I'm sure. Unfortunately today, most people are not honorable enough to keep to their word. Now go if you would to Ezra chapter number nine, Ezra chapter number nine. In the United States that we live in, there's a thing called an annulment. And I would liken this provision in the law somewhat to an annulment. I'm not saying it's exactly the same. I'm not saying that this is even biblically justified. I'm just saying we have something in the United States that's similar to what we see in this provision that's called an annulment. What's an annulment? It's basically where your marriage was not valid. There's certain provisions in the United States law that says the marriage that you did isn't really count. You say, what would be those examples? Incest. If you marry someone closer than a first cousin, the state will grant you an annulment because you're not supposed to marry someone that's in that type of relation. And the Bible even says that. The Bible even talks about not committing that. Bigamy. Bigamy is where you're legally married to somebody else already and then you try to get married again. According to the law, that doesn't really count. That marriage is not going to be valid because you're technically already married to somebody else. You can't just keep getting married and married and married. In the United States, if one spouse is underage, your marriage is invalid. It is not legally count. So if you got married to someone that was 17 years old and she didn't have her guardian sign, the marriage certificate, not a valid marriage. If you're intoxicated, it says if you were too intoxicated to legally consent, then it's not a valid marriage. Meaning these people that go to Vegas and they get so drunk off their mind and go to these chapels, these 24-hour chapels, like a drive-through Big Mac or something, and they get married, they'll a lot of times can get an annulment because they're like, I didn't even know what I was doing. They can wake up with tattoos and a wife and kids and whatever. Now it's like, whoa, this is why you shouldn't drink. Drinking makes you look stupid. Hey, I just married this person and I don't even know them. Impetence. Impetence is if you're unable to perform the bedroom activities of a spouse, you could legally be granted an annulment. I'm not saying this is of the Bible. I'm just saying this is what the United States says, okay? Fraud. So it says a spouse lied about or hid something essential to the marriage. So according to the United States, if someone commits fraud on the marriage and you can prove that fraud, your marriage is no longer valid. That sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Not only that, duress or force, meaning they just kind of force you to get married against your will or whatever. Now according to Texas, it says that after the fraud is discovered, if you don't immediately separate from the person, you continue living with them and continue pretending like it's okay, then you're not granted the annulment. The annulment is only granted if as soon as you hear about the fraud, you immediately separate from the person and you're seeking the annulment. So it's a time sensitive issue. It's not something like, well, in the back of my mind, I'll keep that in mind just in case. It's like this trump card. No, it's like if the fraud was so essential to the marriage and then all of a sudden you find out that he was a she, guess what, you're out. Now I'm not saying you should do that, I'm just saying you never know what's going to go on. The heathen today, they could do all kinds of weird things. But it actually says, according to the Texas, it says a spouse lying about being a virgin before marriage, however, is not enough for an annulment in Texas. So according to the Texas state law, if someone were to be in the provision that the Bible said, if they still, if they fit in that, Texas won't grant you an annulment. They won't give you a divorce. And guess what? I don't even think you should. Even if somehow somebody was in that situation, I still say never divorce, period. That should be something that you just, you talked with your spouse and know your spouse and trusted your spouse. And I mean, you're the one that married him. You better stick it out. And Christ is saying the only reason I was even letting you is because of the hardness of your heart. Now go to Ezra chapter 9, let's look at verse number 10. Because some people they'll pull certain stories out and they'll say, well, but in Ezra people got divorced. You know, they'll try to bring out these things and say, well, if someone commits adultery, they can get divorced. Because every single version of the Bible, except for the King James, you know when it said fornication there? They say sexual immorality. So that just means whatever you want. You just make up, you fill in the blank, oh, adultery affair, they looked at something they shouldn't, they did something they shouldn't, they talked to somebody, I don't like them, whatever. Fill in the blank and then, oh, I get a divorce. But is that what the Bible said? The Bible is saying, hey, it's very specific to fornication. It spells out that it's only fornication and it says, if you're not in this circumstance, you can't get a divorce. You can't put them away all the rest of your days, making all these modern Bibles stupid. And you know what? So many people justify divorce today because they don't have a King James Bible. They have a whatever I want Bible, the NIV. Well, the NIV just is so vague, you can just fill in all the blanks. I'll just get a divorce because I want to because it just sounds right to me because that's what the Spirit was leading me to do. The Spirit's not leading you to do that because the Spirit only speaks the words of God and God says, let not man put asunder, is what the Bible says. Let's see the provision enacted in the Old Testament. We see the provision was made that someone could put away their wife. Let's see it actually enacted and let's see what's the purpose. Some people say, okay, let's say I can't get a divorce for adultery, which is super clear in the Bible. It was only for fornication. It was only the special prevention for fraud. But some people say, what if they're not saved? I mean, do I really have to stay married to an unsaved person? Don't you see in Ezra they put away all their strange wives? Look at verse 10. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? We have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land under which ye go to possess it, it is an unclean land, with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now take note, we see this word popping up unclean, then we see this now about uncleanness. Now what was the provision in the law that a man, if he found some uncleanness, he could put away his wife? Isn't that not what it said? Now let's keep reading. Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever, that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments, and join in an affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest thou be angry with us till thou has consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped as it is this day. Behold we are before thee in our trespasses, we cannot stand before thee because of this. So keep your finger here and go back to Deuteronomy chapter 7. So what happens? Well, Ezra's praying. He's praying and he's distraught because when they returned to the promised land, the children of Israel went astray from the Lord. They disobeyed the Lord. The Lord came with King Nebuchadnezzar. He destroyed Jerusalem. He took captive all of the children of Israel, and then a lot of them were just spread abroad in other countries as well. But we see with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah after the 70 years of captivity, the children of Israel have brought back to the land. But when they come back to the land, they made some mistakes. They came back. They're not clean anymore. They decided, well, we'll just marry the heathen. Since we're out in these countries, we're going to marry the heathen, but according to the law, they were to never marry certain people. There was certain people which they were never allowed to marry, period. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee and to the land whither thou goest to possess it and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them. Ye shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire. So according to the Bible, what are they supposed to do to these certain people? Kill them. Are you supposed to marry them? Never. He doesn't say, well, later. Five generations, 10 generations. He says, never marry these people, period, because they're going to turn you away from me. You won't serve me and then I will destroy you. So Ezra comes back. They're coming back to the promised land. It's exciting. They're building the wall. They're building Jerusalem. And then it's like, oh, look at all our wives. So go back to Ezra chapter number nine. Go back to Ezra chapter number nine. Look at verse one. Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me saying, the people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according their abominations, even the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Amoebites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. That list sounds familiar. Oh, yeah. It's the same list we just read in Deuteronomy chapter seven. He's saying you're coming back. You weren't supposed to marry these people. You're going to defile the land. How can God bless us when we're violating this commandment, when we're not clean, when we're not separate? Now look at chapter 10, verse number one. So that's why he was praying. That's why he was crying. That's why he's so distraught because they've done this wicked thing. Look at verse one. Now, when Ezra had prayed and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children, for the people wept very sore. And Shechemiah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the land. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law. Arise for this matter, but longeth unto thee. We also will be with thee. Be of good courage and do it. So when they decide to put away their wives, why? Because they violated this statute that we read in Deuteronomy chapter number seven, and they want to put them away according to the commandment of God. The Bible says they're trembling at the commandment of God. They're trembling at Deuteronomy chapter seven. They're looking at Deuteronomy chapter seven. They said God says He's going to destroy us suddenly, and they're fearful. But guess what? God had a provision. He said you could put away your wife if you found some uncleanness in her. And so they decide that's what we're going to do. We're going to put away our wives to sanctify, to cleanse the children of Israel so that when we come back to the land, there's not these heathen wicked people among us. Look at verse 17. And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month. And among the sons of the priests, they were found that had taken strange wives, namely of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josadak and his brethren, Maasiah and Eliezer and Jerub and Gedaliah. And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock of their trespass. So it's clear that they're guilty. The Bible tells us in the narration they were guilty of this. This was definitely a sin. Now there's basically two possible interpretations I've heard. I've heard some people say, well, this was wrong. Some people just say, well, they shouldn't have gotten divorced here. It's always wrong to get divorced. And again, I'm teaching you that it's always wrong to get divorced. Okay. I'm not, I'm not changing that, but I do believe that there was a provision for the Israelites specifically where they could get divorced. For what? A specific case of fraud that we see presented in our Bibles. I don't believe that pertains to you for one second, though. And I'll explain that in a minute. But we see some people say what they did was wrong. And I can see somehow how they're getting there just because, what was the provision? The provision was for fornication, right? Now according to this, we don't see them necessarily committing fornication, but they found some uncleanness. Now what's the spirit of the law? The law is that if they commit this fornication, you can put them away. What was the point? It was for fraud, wasn't it? It was a fraudulent marriage. It wasn't really valid. And we see, was this a valid marriage for the children of Israel to get married to a Moabite? To get married to an Ammonite? No, it's a fraudulent marriage. So they're going to decide to now put them away. My personal opinion is that they did what was right here. That this was right for them in this statute because they have a clear commandment in the Bible not to marry these wives. Now let me ask you a question. Do you have a commandment in the Bible saying not to marry a Moabite, not to marry an Ammonite? So there is no way this could ever apply to you. I'm not teaching that this applies to you. I'm teaching my personal opinion is that I think that this was right. Now if you go back to chapter 7, this is further proof of why I believe this. It says in verse number 10, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. So the book of Ezra is telling us there's this great guy. There's this great guy. He knows the law better than anybody. He's prepared his heart to search the word of God. He's going to do the law. He's going to execute it. And then we just have a few chapters and it's all about how he did something wrong. I mean that would be basically what your interpretation is. That's really weird to me. Why would you believe that the Bible is writing a book about this guy named Ezra telling you he's like one of the greatest people of the law. He's going to instruct them how to do the law and then let's just read how he screwed everything up. How he did everything wrong for a couple chapters right after that. That would be kind of a weird interpretation in my opinion. So I believe that what they did, according to this, was right. And you could even take some semblance because everything in the Bible has prophetic semblance. What would be the semblance? Look, when we enter the New Jerusalem, there's no bastards entering in the congregation of the Lord. There's no heathen entering in. Only the saved are going to be entered in. Whether you're married or not, I don't care. The Mormons think that because you got married, well your wife gets to go to upper heaven with you. Just because she's your wife. Look, I don't care who your wife or your husband is. You better believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and only the saved are going into the kingdom. So we see that separation between the goats and the sheep, between those that are righteous and unrighteous. So I think there's still even symbolism that we could learn from this. But let me give you two reasons why this doesn't apply to you. You're not an Israelite. Now go, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter number 7. First of all, you're not an Israelite. So this statue doesn't apply to you. They were trying to follow the commandment of Deuteronomy chapter 7. That's why they decided to take this exception, to take this provision. But guess what? You don't have that provision. Because you don't have a commandment staring you in the face saying, don't marry this person. Don't get married to this heathen if you do forever. Secondly, why I don't believe it applies to you, is because there is no such thing as you not marrying the heathen. Now in the Old Testament law, we see this division between Jew and Gentile. We see this division between the heathen. But this was to spiritually represent in the New Testament those that are saved and unsaved. Now I do believe it's a commandment in the Bible that we should not marry someone who's not saved. It's a commandment for Christians to marry other Christians. And the best question you can ask before you start dating someone, hey if you die today are you 100% sure you go to heaven? You better make sure the person you're getting involved with is saved. You better know that for sure. You better know 100% sure this person is believing in Jesus Christ. I know their doctrine. I know what their faith is, especially if you're a woman, because that guy is going to rule and lead you. Don't you want to make sure this guy has some kind of spiritual stability? This guy has some kind of foundation? But the Bible makes it clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, even if, even if you married someone that's not saved. Let's say you're both unsaved and one gets saved later, right? Is this justification to get divorced? Is this like Ezra where we see this statute where they're supposed to get divorced? Well let's get some clear understanding. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 10. And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband, but initiate a part, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife. So now when it says depart here, it's even meaning don't even separate, meaning hey, I'm married to an unsaved guy. Should I go live with my parents? Should I go live somewhere else? Live with your husband. It says, but if you decide to depart, if you decide to just not live with them, don't get remarried. And if he puts you away, even if he divorces you, don't get remarried. It's adultery. It's adultery if your spouse is alive and you get remarried every time. You say, what about this case? Every time. Every single time it's adultery. It's wicked. It's not of God. We need to have a society today that believes that divorce is wrong every time. Because when you start picking out all these scenarios, well, in adultery, okay. Well, if they're not saved, okay. Well, if they treat you like crap, okay. Then this is what people hear. For every cause? For every cause? Yeah. I mean, I think they're kind of an adulterer. I mean, they looked at a woman with lust in their heart. That's adultery, right? You know, they looked at a woman with lust, so they already committed adultery with her in their heart. So, eh, I'm going to use that provision. Oh, they treated me like crap. They must not be saved. I mean, it's like, literally. I mean, people will do this. Well, they're not really in church. They must not be saved. Think about how many people are unsaved today. I mean, think about your Calvinist. The Calvinists think if you backslide, you're not saved. So now they're just green light. I mean, well, obviously, he's not saved. So let's just get a divorce. And we see divorces rampant and rampant. As a pastor, as a leader, you should never give unclear signals. And even when you do, when you start providing these little bits of exceptions, people green light it. They don't quite hear right. They have itching ears and they say, okay, cool. I'm ready to go. I'm making it clear, never, never, you say, hey, I've got this exception. No, you don't. You have no exception. Now, I'm trying to destroy the stupid logic of using Ezra or something else. Obviously, I'm talking about how they use that provision. But that does not apply to you. Not for one second. Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, the Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part of he that believeth with an infidel? Look, obviously, if you're married to someone that's not saved, that's going to be tough. That's going to be rough. That's not a situation I want to be in. So that's why you make sure you're married to someone who's saved. Make sure you're married to someone that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's a question. What happens if you're not? Stay with them. Now, then, people will dream up, though. They'll dream up the worst possible scenarios. They'll dream up these weird hypotheticals of this person being like a psychopath. It's Ted Bundy or something, you know. I mean, it's Jeffrey Dahmer. Well, that person should be put to death. Come on. And even in today's society, that person's going to be put to death. So then they have to draw it back. Okay, well, maybe he's not Jeffrey Dahmer, you know. He didn't literally eat people, you know, that he killed or whatever. But what if he's pretty close? What if he's just a sodomite? What if he's a reprobate? What if he's a child molester? What if he's somebody really horrible, okay? And look, there's too many sodomites and reprobates today. People are actually married to them. People actually wake up and they get saved and they realize, my spouse is a reprobate. My spouse is horrible. Well, go to 1 Samuel chapter 25. We'll actually find a person in the Bible who says she's married to a reprobate. Let's see what she does. And let me make it clear again, never divorce, period. I am, I'm making, I don't want there to be any exception. There is no exception. When Jesus Christ said, hey, except it be for fornication, he's obviously pointing to the revision in the law, but I don't believe that applies to you. And if, even if it could, Jesus is still saying, don't do it. It's because of the hardness of your heart that you would even enact that provision. And we see the only reason the people in Ezra decided to do it is because they wanted to follow the commandment of God in Deuteronomy chapter 7. They weren't just doing it because of the hardness of their heart. They were doing it to try and serve God. But there's no reason for you to decide you're serving God by getting divorced. Therefore, there's no reason for divorce. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 25 verse 14. Men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt. Neither missed we anything, as long as we were conversant with them. When we were in the fields, they were a wall unto us both by night and day. All the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Look at verse 17. Now, therefore, no one consider what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. So what do the servants think about this guy? This guy is the son of the devil. What's Belial? Belial represents Bel or Beelzebub, which represents the devil. This is a false god that represents a son of Satan. They're saying this guy is the son of Satan, and nobody can talk to him. How can you get that guy saved? You can't. That's with the picture of the reprobate. The reprobate won't listen to anybody. He's already got his mind made up. He's never going to believe in Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18. Then Abigail made ace, and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. This is a hard working woman. Did you just see that meal that she prepared? And she said unto her servants, Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be, and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid, Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he, Nabal is his name, and Folly is with him, but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord whom thou didst sin. What does she think? She confirms the words of the servants. She says, My husband's a reprobate. My husband's a son of Satan. And she's saying, Look, he's, he's folly. Now what do we read in Romans chapter 1? The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. We see the picture of the reprobate. We see she can identify him as a reprobate. That's what she thinks of him. Whether it's true or not, we can't necessarily 100% confirm, but she believes he is. How much closer can you get to them believing it? Look at verse 26. Now therefore my lord, as the lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, thou let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. She's cursing her husband. If you didn't just pick up, she's saying, My husband's a reprobate, and you know what? I hope that he dies just like all your enemies, David. I hope the lord strikes him and kills him. That's how she feels about her husband. She didn't tell her husband that she's going to help David. She just went, served the lord. She's just making revision, and she's protecting her household. She's protecting her servants. Look at verse 27. And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid, for the lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of the lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. So what does Abigail do? Well, she's married to a dangerous predator. She's married to a sick individual, but you know what she decides? She decides, I'm going to take this opportunity to protect people from him. Isn't that what she's doing? She's protecting her servants from them. She's protecting herself from him. And she's even going to the lord and saying, hey, I hope this guy dies. Like don't get me wrong, I'm ready for this guy to perish. I don't want to be around him, but she didn't divorce him. She's still with him, and she's what? She's protecting other people from him. Is she not? Look at verse 36 now. She's going to trip down. So then David likes this advice. She gives David advice, the man after God's own heart. She says don't avenge yourself. Let God take care of it. You know what? That's a good advice for someone that was in this situation. Let God take care of it. You just do what you're supposed to do. You follow God's commandments, and let God take care of it. Look at verse 36. And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold he held a feast in his house, like the feast of the king, and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Another reprobate attribute. Wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. So not only does she go against him, then she tells him, hey, guess what I did? I went and helped David. I went and took provision for him, and I told him that I hope you die like all of his enemies. And guess what? His heart dies inside of him. Look at verse number 38. And it came to pass, about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died. So then what do we see? Well, the Lord kills Nabal. Now what a great thing. He looks at Abigail, she's wanting to serve the Lord, she's doing right. She speaks this pronouncement against Nabal, and guess what God does? He kills him. Now here's the thing. When you read a story in the Bible, you can never say just carte blanche that's right. You have to let the Lord tell you if it's right. How can he tell you? Well, first of all, if the law said it, it's always right. That's just guaranteed. If the narrator, the Holy Ghost, tells you it's right, it's right. If you see God interacting in the story, you can get a pretty good idea that what happened was right. So you say, what did Abigail do? Was that right? Because the Bible makes it clear that the wife is supposed to obey her husband in everything, is what the Bible says. And in a couple of these things, it sounds a little sketchy. She didn't tell him that she went out. Then she kind of tells him later. And well, what does the Lord do, though? He kills Nabal, doesn't he? It seems like the Lord is complicit in her actions. He likes what she did. He's going to carry forth with this curse that she renounced on her husband. And he goes in and kills him. Now again, anything she did that contradicts the law or another place in clear scripture, it's not right. But we get a picture, we get a sense of what this woman did in this situation. And we even see God killing her husband. You say, what if someone was in this situation? I would try to do what Abigail did. I'm just being honest. But did she get divorced? No. And there's a lot of reasons why I believe divorce, even in this situation, is wrong. Here's the first one. Because the only reason to get divorced is to get remarried. Look, if you separate from the spouse, let's say the spouse is dangerous or a predator or the murderer, whatever. OK. You dream up your weird scenario. If you're not dwelling with them, OK, now you're protected, you're living back with your parents or whatever, OK, the only reason you would get divorced at that point is so you could get remarried. But guess what? That's adultery. It's adultery if your husband's alive and you get remarried. But think about the flip side. If you get divorced to a reprobate, the reprobate can marry someone else. You're just screwing somebody else over. You're letting someone else be taken advantage of by this reprobate. Why don't you just accept the punishment that you've brought upon yourself by marrying that reprobate? Because if you just check their salvation before you get married, they won't be a reprobate. Just FYI. That's your guardian. That's your protection. So if you do find yourself in this situation, accept your punishment. Why don't you keep to your vow? You know Jephthah in the Bible, he vowed that he would sacrifice whatever would come out of his doors to meet him when he returned in the battle. Guess what returned? His young daughter. And you know what he did? He sacrificed his daughter. I think that's worse. I think I would rather be married to a reprobate than kill my own daughter. But we see it was a picture of what? How God would send his son to die on the cross. We see the prophetic significance of what was taking place. But we ought to keep to our vows, period. We ought to never get divorced, period. So why am I going to let somebody else be victimized by my sodomite reprobate spouse? Why don't you just take the full punishment, say I'm not going to get it on anybody else. I'm going to make sure that everybody else is warned of this guy and protected against this guy. Still I wouldn't even get divorced. I'm not saying you have to be intimate with a person. I'm not saying you have to dwell with them and you know hang out and have parties and do whatever. I'm just saying look, divorce is not the option. So if you take that off, then you have other options, okay. Pray your imprecatory prayers. I'm fine with that. You know, you see Abigail, she's not real excited about this guy. Here's another reason. All you're going to do in divorce is give all your assets to the lawyer. You just, whatever amount of money you have, let's say it's 100 bucks, you're just saying here, here's $30 to the lawyer. Here's $50 to the lawyer. Here's whatever. I mean they take a huge portion of your assets for going through this headache. So now you're both in financial distress. It's not going to benefit you. Not only that, it lessens the commitment of marriage and teaching young people they don't have to worry about marrying this type of extreme person. Because basically if you say well there's an out. If you get in this really bad situation, there's an out. So now all of a sudden it's not that big a deal. It's not something you have to worry about. I mean if they're a reprobate, then who cares. Well I think you should take that punishment so then young people are warned, whoa, I better be careful who I marry. It's a big decision. Don't take it lightly. Don't just go to Vegas and get married to somebody you met yesterday or a week ago. Some people they get married super quick and look I'm not saying it can't work out but that's not my recommendation. And we see some people in the Bible did it. Good for them. That's great. But I'm not going to recommend you meeting somebody 10 days ago and getting married. Now hey praise the Lord if it works out and if you get married, never divorce. But I'm just saying I couldn't get to know somebody well enough in 10 days to just be like alright let's put a ring on it. Let's just go to the chapel and you know I'm sure you were telling me all the right things in these last 10 days. Now look I'm not saying you have to be dating for years or something. I'm just saying at least get to know the person a little bit. Make sure they're saved. Make sure they actually like church. Make sure they show up to church once or twice before you put the ring on it, okay. Not only that, you broke your vow. I mean if you get divorced there's no way around the fact you broke your vow. Because you said till death do us part. Did you mean it? It says for better or for worse that's pretty much the worst. We're literally going to the worst, okay. We're at the scale of the worst. But what do you do? Till death do us part. Not only that, you're letting others be hurt by your spouse. I just don't see any benefit. There's no benefit. It's not of the Bible. It's not what Jesus said. I think that makes no sense. And when you say this, the reality is can you really prove someone's a reprobate in every situation? I mean some people they'll be like, I gave him the gospel a couple times, he still doesn't get it. I think he's a reprobate. Oh, now I can get divorced. Pastor, my husband's a reprobate. You know, he doesn't want to come to church. You've never met the person. Y'all don't know him. Just reprobate. Okay. Okay, it's fine. And then just get remarried. It's not a big deal. No. We see these loopholes always cause confusion and people start making bad decisions and they hear one thing from the pastor and they interpret it another way and they're like, okay, well he's a reprobate and he's a reprobate. Look, go on Facebook. Everybody's calling everybody a reprobate. Everybody's a reprobate. I mean you go on Facebook, 90% of people are reprobates. It's ridiculous. It's stupid. Now obviously, if someone's a full-fledged sodomite, you know, pedophile, yeah, they're a reprobate. It's like trying to discredit and get you uncomfortable with believing that. But there's also some gray area in that area and the people say, oh, well, you know, he's a minister at some, you know, church, some other church, he must be reprobate. You know, he's a youth minister at some Methodist church. Look, I worked in the youth ministry at a non-Anom church. Does that make me a reprobate? No. Look, just because they're wrong about some things or have some things off doesn't just, oh, reprobate. And if you say, hey, you can get divorced to a reprobate. I mean, I don't want to force you to be in a reprobate situation. Then people hear, okay, green light. If I don't like them, if they don't want to come to my church, they're probably a reprobate, so ergo divorce. Not going to happen. You come to me with your situation, this is what I'll say every time. Never. Never. You say, what about this situation? No. Never get divorced. Go to Romans chapter 7. The last place I want to have you turn. They'll say, oh, but he's abusive, but sexual immorality, but of the money. You don't understand, Pastor Shelley, adultery. You don't understand he's not saved. You don't understand he's a reprobate. Well guess what? Adulters should be put to death. Reprobate should be put to death. You know, all these extreme examples you keep giving, the force isn't the answer. The death penalty is the answer. But even if you're in this crazy hypothetical situation, why don't you just take the full responsibility for your reprobate? Just say, he's my reprobate and I'm going to make sure to protect people from my reprobate. You know? It's my job in this world to protect people from my reprobate. I'll warn everybody from him. I'll curse him. But you know what? I'm not going to sit here and just allow people to come to this church and play marriage swap. I've been to swapping, you know, marriage spouse Baptist church. Swapping spouse Baptist church, it's not going to happen here. It's not welcome here. I've seen people get divorced and then they start dating another person in the church. Not welcome. Not going to happen in my church, period. That's adultery. And you know what? Forticators are thrown out of the church according to 1 Corinthians 5. Guess what? Adultery is in there too, buddy. He didn't put all the capital offenses in 1 Corinthians 5, but they fit in too. And you know what? If someone's going to come to this church and they're divorced, I love you. I'm not mad at you because you're divorced. If you've gotten remarried after divorce, I'm still not mad at you, okay? Serve God. Do whatever. That just because you're in this situation, you're an adulterer for the rest of your life. But guess what? When it happens, you're going to be called an adulterer. Look at Romans chapter 7 verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath 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 even if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. If you decide to come and present your remarried spouse to me, hey, what's going on adulteress? What's going on adulterer? And look, it's not welcome in my church, period. So this is, let me make this clear. If people come into our church, they're clearly members, they've clearly heard the Word of God, and let's say they're divorced. They're in this situation, and they decide to go get remarried somewhere else and then walk back into church on Sunday morning, not going to happen. They're going to be called out, and they're going to be cast out until they repent, meaning what? They're not going to come in teaching people it's okay to go against what the Bible says, what this church teaches, and just walk in and pretend like, oh, it's okay. And look, people come in and it's like this taboo thing where everybody's like, didn't they just like commit adultery? And it's like, yeah, what's going on with that? And then nothing said, look, obviously none of us is perfect. Obviously a ton of us make mistakes. I'm not saying somebody in this situation comes into church and adulterer forever. It's a one-time thing. You get remarried, that first act of getting married, adultery, everything after that, stay married. Never get divorced. No matter what situation you're in, how many times you've been divorced, one of these celebrities have been married, divorced 10 times, stick with the one you got, okay? Just stick with the one you got. And if you're not married, don't get remarried. Meaning what? I will never perform a wedding for someone that's been divorced. Never. You say, what if it was a rep rate? Never. Zero. Not going to happen. And it's not welcome. So you say, hey, I'm divorced. You're not welcome to come here and shop for a wife. You're not welcome to come here and shop for a husband. Not going to happen. And you say, okay, well, we can just go out to the courthouse and then come back later. You're going to be called out. Because I'm not going to let my children see people go against God's word like that, come and bring adultery into the church and just say nothing. Just be, oh, it's okay. Look, I'm the man of God here. I have to get up and say, that's wicked, not acceptable. And if the person wants to say, you know what, you're right. That was wrong. That was wicked. I'm sorry. And say, all right, okay. You can be forgiven. But you're not going to come in here and teach people that's what they should do. Because you know what you're going to do? People are going to see that example, and they're going to say, well, it worked out for them. I mean, they were divorced, and they got remarried. They look happy. It looks good for them. And then what happens three years later? They get divorced again. And they get what's happened. They get to the third marriage, and they get divorced even more likely and more likely and more likely. You're not going to bring this in and teach the congregation how good that is. Oh, let's bring the leaven in and teach people how wonderful that is. Now obviously somebody comes in, they're in fornication, they've never been to this church one time. I'm not going to give them the boot, right? We're talking about members who are part of the church, who know the Bible. They've heard what I've said. I'm not going to allow it. I'm not going to tolerate it. If you want to swap spouses, go somewhere else. And I've been to the church where we're in a Sunday school class, and it's like these couples have all swapped spouses, literally. Like hey, I was married to that guy, and she was married to this guy, and this other guy that's divorced, he's dating this other girl in here. Not going to happen! Wicked! Evil! Oh, but we're Christians. We're so much different. That's not different. That's worse than the world. That's so ungodly, and I don't want to be in a room, I don't want to allow you to be in a room with this like, hey, there was my former wife with this other dude. Look, the Bible says jealousy is the rage of a man. I couldn't get over that. I would tear you apart. If you're sitting with my wife, I will literally tear you apart. And so you say, hey, when are you going to get divorced, Pastor? Never. I'm never going to get divorced. And so it's like salvation. Don't you preach salvation, and people say, isn't salvation like a license to sin? I mean, my wife knows I will never divorce her, period! Oh, I guess she can do whatever she wants then. Well, technically she can, but guess what? She wants to have a good relationship with me. If she loves me, what will she do? She'll love me. She'll be faithful to me. She'll talk to me. It's the same with salvation. Just because I can't go to hell doesn't mean I'm going to go out and get drunk and do drugs and just do whatever I want. No, I want to serve God. I want to love God. And you know what? Even though my wife could do, there's not anything she could do to where I would divorce her, I hope she keeps faithful. I hope she loves me. I hope she does that which is right, and I'm going to do the same for her. We both know we're not going to divorce each other, period. That doesn't make us want to do bad stuff. That makes us want to serve each other. And when it's not on the table, you will have a better marriage. When divorce is an option, you think about it, you plan it, you plot it, but when it's not an option, you think of other solutions like, hey, maybe I should apologize, hey, maybe I should go buy her flowers, hey, maybe I should take her on a date, hey, I'm stuck with this person for the rest of my life, why don't I try and make it work? You know, and there's always this back door, people quit on marriage. They give up in their marriage because they have this option, they have this back door, but when you have no back door, when you just go ahead and get rid of that back door, I'm stuck with this person, so I better always make it work. I better always do my best, I better always try, I should just, you know, try to love my spouse. That's the point of the sermon. It takes divorce off the table. Never an option. Never going to happen. And you say, hey, I can't wait to get divorced and remarried, you're not welcome at this church. You can go try the swapping spouse Baptist church, not welcome here, ever. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for the freeness of salvation. Thank you that we're the bride of Christ, that you would never, you know, abandon us and desert us, that we're just always under thy grace. I pray that our marriages could resemble that covenant and that commitment you have to us, that we would just love our spouses and love our husbands and our wives the way that you love us, to where we would say, well, divorce is not an option. I will never divorce, I will love my spouse with all my heart as best as I can, I'm committed to this relationship, I actually mean what I said when I said until death do us part, and I pray anybody that has made mistakes or is in a bad situation, they could still find comfort in serving you, find the comfort in loving you and following your commandments and trying to do that which is right, and I pray that you would just bless them. Anybody that's in a second or third or fourth marriage or whatever, they could still be blessed in that relationship. They could still have love in the relationship, and they could both decide, you know what, it's going to be death do us part this time. I know I messed up before, but now I'm going to do my best, and I know I'm never going to do it again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.