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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Amen. Good evening. Would you please turn with me to the book of Ezra? Ezra chapter 10. Ezra chapter 10 tonight. The book of Ezra chapter 10. In Ezra chapter 10 the Bible reads, Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children, for the people wept very sore. And Shekiniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God 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 belongeth unto thee. We also will be with thee. Be of good courage and do it. Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear that they should do according to this word, and they swear. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib. And when he came thither, he did eat no bread nor drink water, for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem, and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and for the great rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure, and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without. Neither is this a work of one day or two, for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jehaziah, the son of Tikvah, were employed about this matter, and Mashulam and Shabbithaiah, the Levite, helped them. And the children of the captivity did so, and Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 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 there were found that had taken strange wives, namely of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josadak, and his brethren Maaseah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedalia, and they gave their hands that they would put away their wives. And being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass. And of the sons of Immer, Hanani, and Zebediah, and of the sons of Harim, Maaseah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah, and of the sons of Pashur, Elio, Enai, Maaseah, Ishmael, Nathaniel, Josabad, and Elasa, also of the Levites, Josabad and Shemaiah, and Calaiah, the same as Kelita, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. Of the children of the singers also, Eliashib, and of the porters Shalom, and Telem, and Uri. Moreover of Israel, of the sons of Parosh, Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malkiah, and Miamin, and Eliezer, and Malkijah, and Benaiah. And of the sons of Elam, Mataniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeromoth, and Elia. And of the sons of Zatu, Elio, Enai, Eliashib, Mataniah, and Jeromoth, and Zabad, and Aziza. Of the sons also of Beba'i, Jeho, Hanan, Hananiah, Zabai, and Athlai. And of the sons of Bani, Meshulim, Maluk, and Adiah, Jashub, and Sheol, and Ramoth. And of the sons of Pahothmohab, Adnah, and Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseah, Mataniah, Bezah, Le'el, and Binui, and Manasseh. And of the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Eishijah, Malkiah, Shemaiah, Shemaon, Benjamin, Maluk, and Shemariah. Of the sons of Hashum, Matenai, Matathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeromai, Manasseh, and Shema'i. Of the sons of Bani, Ma'adai, Amram, and U'el, Benaiah, Bedia, Chelu, Vaniyah, Meromoth, Eliashib, Matenai, Matenai, and Ja'asau. And Bani, and Binui, Shema'i, and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adiah. Makna, Debai, Shashai, Sharai, Azarael, and Shelemiah, Shemariah, Shalom, Amariah, and Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo, Je'el, Matithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadao, and Joel, Benaiah. All these had taken strange wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children. Another Steven, would you prefer some? God, thank you again for coming here. Amen. All right. Well, thank you, Brother Eli, for reading that. When Brother Eli struggles a little bit, but not a lot, then you know it's tough. But I wanted to give an opportunity for you guys to get those baby names one more time. For anybody that's just thinking, I just have a tough time thinking of new baby names. Because that's always a struggle, isn't it? So there's some really good ones in there for you to choose from. So last week I kind of got stuck on the topic of hope found in verse number two. Let's go ahead and turn, or just look down your Bible at verse number two. The people had married strange wives, and really it's the leadership that he really has the problem with. Obviously it's bad for anybody to intermarry within another faith. When you're a Christian, you shouldn't marry outside of the faith. Even as a Christian, if you're a fundamental Baptist, and you marry a supposed, quote-unquote, Christian, you say that's a Catholic, that's not a real Christian. Don't say that you're marrying a Christian, and it's a Catholic or some other unsaid, it's a tongue-talking Pentecostal or something like that. But you want to marry your spiritual equal, at least, and somebody that is actually saved. That's the standard. Now what's happened here, though, is that, of course, God has always said to stay away from these heathen nations. And they went back into the land, and now they've married and intermarried once again, committing the same thing that they always end up screwing up on, the same thing that the devil trips them up on every single time, going to these people. And the leadership has done so, the princes have done so, the priests and the Levites have done so. And Ezra's really upset about this, and this great congregation's come to him in verse one, and then Shekiniah, the son of Jehiel, I can't even pronounce his name, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and we have taken strange wives of the people of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. And that's what I preached about last week, is that it's great that he said that, but here's the problem with what he says next. In verse number three, I like what he said in verse number two, because there is always hope. If you're a Christian and you're saved, even if God ends up cutting your life short, there's still hope in the fact that you get to go to heaven and you have eternal life. There's always hope. There's always hope. And obviously, if you think about God and His long suffering and His mercy, He has a lot of mercy towards us. He has a lot of long suffering towards us. And if you think of it like it's a rubber band, like His long suffering is like a rubber band of mercy and long suffering. But eventually that rubber band only goes so far, and then it snaps. So His long suffering does have an end, His mercy does have an end, and judgment does fall sometimes. Well, every time. It's going to fall. And if we would judge ourselves, obviously God would have mercy on us, but judgment is going to fall upon us at some point. But look what it says in verse number three. This is where He starts to go sideways with His proclamation here. It says, Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives. So it's like, er, He just kind of veers off the road right here. Now, some people would say He's right and He's okay with saying this, but I'm going to submit to you that that's not right. My first point in my sermon tonight is over-correcting or over-compensating with incorrect judgment and drastic measures. Look, just because you've sinned and you've messed up, don't just jerk the wheel so far to the right that you're over-compensating and you're over-doing it because of something you messed up on. They're just like jumping off of a cliff here and doing something that God has not told them to do. So, now obviously they're not supposed to be married to strange wives, but what's done is done. You can't take that back. When you've vowed vows and you've said, tell death to us part, when you've said in sickness and in health, in poverty as in wealth, as long as we both shall live, that is a vow that you've made to a covenant you've made forever, not forever, but till you die. That's the truth of it. And to say, hey, let's do something stupid here and let's get rid of our wives. Hey, we're idiots, we've messed up, so let's just get rid of our wives so that we can still be priests, so we can still be rulers, and so we can make God happy? No, it's not going to make God happy, okay? Now, say their wives are just the worst heathen wives ever and they won't convert or whatever, because I mean, look, can't they try to convert them? I mean, that's part of something they could try to do. Or if they're just still being obedient and obeying them and maybe they're not quite converted but they can still live with them in peace, those things are possible. But to just cut them off, and they've already had children with them. Look what it says. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them, so let's talk about their children, 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. Now, it says, So this guy's counsel to Ezra, this is still the same guy talking, he's saying to Ezra, let's do this, let's divorce the wives, let's make this happen according to the law. Now, we'll get into that here in just a little bit, but look at verse 5, it says, So, there's a reason why Jesus says to swear not in the New Testament. Because they've already made covenants with their wives, haven't they? They've already vowed vows to their wives and said that they're going to be with them until death do us part. When you take on a family, and you've already messed up, and you've already done this deed and married a heathen spouse, to divorce them and to forsake your children, is adding sin upon what you've already done. And he's making them swear to do this. He's making them swear oaths to do this. So this is overcompensating for the sin that they've committed. This is my opinion, but I don't think that my opinion is wrong on this. Obviously, most people don't think their opinions are wrong, but I'm just saying, I'm going to prove to you that I believe that my opinion is right by the Bible. I'm not going to just float my personal opinion out there without having the Bible to back it up. But anyway, here's something you have to understand. Again, remember, this is a historical book. This is a historical book. Just because it's said in here doesn't mean that everything is right. Just because Ezra says something doesn't mean it's always right. Now, a lot of the things he does are right, but I think up until this point. And here's another thing that's true. No man in the Bible does everything perfect. Moses makes mistakes. He's supposed to talk to the rock, he hits it. He doesn't go to the Promised Land for that. And Moses was a great man, wasn't he? So Ezra is a great man of God. There's no doubt about that. I'm not taking away from the fact that he's a great man, but I just think here he's overdoing it. He's upset. I realize why he's upset. He's seen the downfall of Israel and where they've gotten now and then how they've screwed it all up again, and he knows that the wrath is going to come, and he wants to try to do his best to fix it. But, you know, again, a historical book, just because someone says something doesn't mean it's always true, doesn't mean it's always right, and they're saying let's do it by the law of Moses, and that law is what? To write a bill of divorcement to them. But there's stipulations to writing a bill of divorcement. You can't, you know, in the New Testament, and we'll go to those verses later, but in the New Testament they said, well, can we divorce for any reason? They asked Jesus that question, and then how does he respond to them? He doesn't say you can do it for any reason. He says there's specific reasons why you'd be allowed to do that, and those are spelled out in Scripture for us. And I would just say this also. Two wrongs don't make a right. You can't just do the wrong thing again, and then that fixes it. It doesn't fix it. Look at verse 6. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib, and when he came hither he did not eat no bread, or he did eat no bread, nor drink water, for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away. That's good. That's proper. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity that they should gather themselves together into Jerusalem and that whosoever would not come within three days according to the council of the princes and the elders, the same guys that did all this stuff, right, all his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. So if they don't agree to do this, then all their stuff's going to be taken away. Sounds like communism to me. I mean, is that right? Does the Bible say that you're allowed to do that? I mean, I don't think that that's right. I think that's another mistake. Again, taking it too far. They're taking it too far and they're making them forfeit all their stuff unless they do what they say, you have to divorce your wives. I'm forcing you to divorce your wives. Look at verse 9. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together into Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the 20th day of the month and all the people sat in the street of the house of God trembling because of this matter and for the great rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them, You have transgressed and have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel. True, right? That is true. Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers. That's good. That's right. There's nothing wrong with saying that. And do his pleasure. That's true also. And separate yourselves from the people of the land. Also, good advice. And from the strange wives. No. No. Now if you're going to say, Well, they're so bad that you have to stay away from them, they're a danger to your children, they're a danger to you, they're trying to kill you or something. Okay, yeah. Separate yourselves. But that doesn't mean to divorce them. Okay? So, again, two wrongs don't make a right. Now, I'm for separation and just being estranged for them or whatever, but divorce is not taught in the Bible that it's just okay to do that. Now look at verse 12. It says, Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do. But the people are many and it is time of much rain that we are not able to stand without. Neither is this a work of one day or two, for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. Let now the rulers, excuse me, let now our rulers of all the congregations stand and let them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times and with them the elders of every city and the judges thereof until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jehazi the son of Tikva were employed about this matter and Meshelim and Shabbatiah and the Levite helped them. And the children of the captivity did so and Ezra the priest with a certain chief of the fathers after the house of their fathers and all them by their names were separated and sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter and they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month. So they carried out the divorces didn't they? That's what they did. So now number two tonight though what saith the scriptures? Paul says that in one of his you know he says that a lot. The Bible says that a lot. What saith the scriptures? What's the Bible say about it though? So this is what's important. Obviously Ezra knows the Bible really well but again I think that he was overzealous in this matter. Now he's right about a lot of other things but no man of God is right about everything and so this is an important lesson also. Nobody's right about everything so whoever your favorite preacher is your favorite you know pastor or whatever they're not right about everything. So just don't, once you feel that way and then there's something that you feel like they're wrong about it's gonna burst your little baby bubble and then you're gonna be upset and your whole world's gonna come crashing down because your favorite hero preached something that you didn't agree with. So nobody's right about everything and I preached something about that earlier on in the series here so that's just another thing to think about. So now so what does the Bible say? What saith the scriptures? So look at Genesis chapter two verse 21. Let's go back to the beginning here and we'll look at some verses. We'll look at the first marriage in the Bible here real quick. What does the Bible say about marriage? Genesis chapter two verse 21 of course I'm not gonna go through every verse in scripture of marriage but I'm gonna go through several of them. So Genesis 2 21 says, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. So the first man married his rib so don't get too you know basically he made her into his rib into a woman okay. And Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh literally right and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. So notice it says leave father and mother. This is a problem in a lot of marriages that people refuse to leave their father and mother. They might leave them as far as leave their home but they don't leave mommy and daddies their mentorship and their authority they start bringing mom and dad into their marriage and that's a real problem. Hey when you get married mom and dad are no longer your authority. Your husband is your authority and husbands your wife is who you're supposed to be taking care of. I mean obviously we respect our parents and not everything but don't let your parents get involved in your marriage to the point where it's dominating what's going on inside your marriage. And so that's why leave and cleave. You know you leave and leave your problems inside your marriage and don't talk to them about your parent with your parents because it's going to cause problems I guarantee it. I've seen it lots of times. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 13. So we saw the first marriage is between Adam and Eve right? And they too shall be one flesh they too shall be one flesh is what Jesus talks about later but now what Deuteronomy 22 says about divorce here. So this is where we start getting into technical things about divorce. So Deuteronomy 22 verse 13 says If any man take a wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasions of speech against her and bring up an evil name upon her and say I took this woman and when I came to her I found her not a maid. So this is the initial consummation of a marriage. Isn't that what it's talking about here? He marries her but he hates her. He gets what he wants and he's basically saying I don't like her. He's basically making up and saying that she's not a virgin. This is what's going on here. 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 and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders I gave my daughter unto this man to wife and he hateth her. And lo he hath given occasions of speech against her saying I found not thy daughter a maid. So that's what he's saying, right? He's saying she's not a virgin. And so he's basically accusing her of lying and that she's a whore, basically. 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. So he gets beaten for doing this. And they shall immerse him in a hundred shekels of silver and gave them unto the father of the damsel. So he has to pay a big fine. It's a hundred shekels of silver he gets his butt kicked and he has to pay the father. And it says and because she hath brought up an evil name upon unto the father of the damsel because he hath brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel and she shall be his wife. Does it say he gets to divorce her for any reason? He shall be his wife he may not put her away all his days. So does that say he can divorce her for any reason right there? No, it says the opposite of that it says he lied and he's gonna have to do what he said he was gonna do he's consummated the marriage he was lying about her and now he has to be embarrassed basically for the rest of his life about it because he got the crap beat out of him and had to pay a huge fine to dad to stay with her and it's probably not gonna be a happy marriage at first but you know I mean what's right is right he has to do what's right by her because he consummated the marriage because obviously if he got to just walk away clean then then what she's just she's basically tainted and not able to be given away again as a virgin and he's like ruined her name. So look at verse 20 it says 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 shall stone her with stones that she died 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. So if it is true then she gets the death penalty and it says if a man be found lying with a so that's the that's what happens if she actually is lying about it okay which you know people say well that's not fair how come he just gets beaten and has to pay a fine you know ask God when he get to heaven okay I don't know why but I just know what the Bible says okay so verse 22 says if a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband and then they both then shall both of them die so I saw this thing on Facebook not too long ago where people were saying like yeah it's only only the woman gets put to death and the man never gets put to death in the case of adultery it's like are you stupid like how could you actually think that like the Bible says right here if you're both put to death for committing adultery right that's what it says right so if you're married and you commit adultery it's the death penalty for both of you in the story where the woman gets brought before Jesus the woman brought before Jesus in the case of adultery it's funny that the guy doesn't get brought with him and so some people will say well because of that guy that guy doesn't get brought well he doesn't have to because it's not the death penalty for him yes it would have been but he was probably the homie of those guys he was probably their friend and that was probably set up on purpose it's not said in the text but it's inferred in the text basically so let me get back to this verse though verse 22 so I mean this is kind of how because divorces don't work like this anymore obviously we know that so people can go and play the whore or play the whoremonger in their marriages and they can actually file for divorces because they don't like you anymore and then they can just steal your kids steal your livelihood get alimony and all this other stuff or whatever and it's just totally evil and wicked today but under these laws then you get to get remarried that's what happens here but you don't always have to let that person die like Joseph when he thought Mary was committing adultery against him and he was betrothed to Mary they hadn't consummated the marriage yet he wanted to do it privately he wanted to put her away privately and not allow her he didn't want her to get killed he just wanted to put her away privately privately whatever so that she wouldn't get killed but she wasn't committing adultery but he had the right to annul that wedding because he thought that she had committed fornication beforehand that is the clause to annul the wedding so and then it says verse 23 if a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband that's the clause right here and a man find her in the city and lie with her then he shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city and he shall stone them with stones that they die who dies? both of them die right? 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 in this case they're just betrothed they haven't even consummated the marriage yet and they both die because if you're betrothed if you're engaged and both of you are virgins and you've already basically I mean obviously our betrothals in modern America are a little bit different than you know back then but back then if you were betrothed to marry someone it's as if you were already married to them you just the consummation of the marriage made it fully legal okay so I mean there's a lot that it takes to actually make a divorce happen and really you know there's clauses in here if you play the whore if you play the whoremonger if you commit adultery you're dead that's it and then that person gets to remarriage somebody else and you get to move on with your life right? but that's just not how it is today so marriage is complicated these days marriage is really ugly these days when things get complicated and things get really nasty and marriage I've told people this a lot of times that marriage complications are one of the hardest things that I deal with as a pastor because sometimes there just really isn't a right answer sometimes the right there's one two three four five six seven wrong answers and only one that's the rightest out of all the wrongs to choose from and it's really difficult to navigate those things because this is what the bible says but I can't enact these things because I'm not the government the government carries these things out and we don't live under this government so I can't enact these things I'm not I'm the pastor of a church and I can only my authority only goes so far so I have to turn people into the police and you know what? if someone commits adultery and you call the police and say someone's committing adultery and I know about it here's the evidence I have right now officer come and arrest these people and put them to death you know what they're going to do? they're going to laugh at me but you know what? God doesn't think it's a laughing matter God doesn't think it's a laughing matter but that's the way things are right now right now so now let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 24 it's a couple chapters over now this is kind of what happens later on this isn't just the marriage day and I just want to explain something real quick while you're turning there now if a woman cries out because it said if she didn't cry out if a woman cries out if a woman's being raped the man is only put to death and no she does not have to marry her rapist because that's what the NIV says we're King James only because the NIV just a bad for instance it says you have to marry your rapist in that Bible and so atheists and trolls will use that as a reason why the Bible is so wrong but the Bible doesn't teach that the Bible says the rapist if someone rapes a woman it's the death penalty for them they get put to death it's as if like a man when he overcomes another man and murders him basically so the Bible kind of equates rape with murder and puts it as a capital crime but let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1 the Bible says when a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because so why because he hath found some uncleanness in her and what's that talking about well it's probably sexual impurity is what he's talking about here then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it into her hand and send her out of his house so here's the clause of the bill of divorcement so he's found some kind of uncleanness in her now it says and when she is the partner of his house go and be another man's wife and you're like wow okay well divorce and remarriage is taught in the Bible well but you know we're in the New Testament now and Jesus actually says something different than this so now this is a clause that was put in place for the hardness of their hearts this is what Jesus explains but look what it says let's just read on further here it says verse 3 and if the latter husband hate her and write her a bill of divorcement and giveth it in her hand and send her out of his house or if the latter husband die which took her to be his wife her former husband which sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after that she is defiled for that is an abomination before the Lord so if you your husband divorced you back then and you were able to go out and be another man's wife and that guy hated you and divorced you you couldn't go back to the original husband because you've been defiled by another man you've had relations with another man and so therefore you could not go back to the original husband now I know that people do that these days I know of Christians who have got remarried didn't know these things whatever what's done is done though and this is a thing that people love to challenge me on and say well no they need to divorce that once they know this truth they need to divorce the remarried wife you know and then go back to their original spouse that's not what the Bible says friends it says the opposite of that it says it's an abomination before the Lord it says now shall not cause the land of sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance so how does God feel about it though so Moses was gave them this clause here in the Old Testament which we're not living in anymore by the way and but how does God feel about it look at Malachi the last book before the New Testament Malachi chapter 2 verse 14 how does God feel about this because we know from the commentary of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 19 and of course the other gospels but we know that how God actually feels about divorce from Jesus but look what he says in Matthew chapter 2 verse 14 it says Malachi chapter 2 verse 14 yet ye say wherefore because the Lord hath been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth because with whom thou hast dealt treacherously yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant a covenant is an agreement that you make with someone and are you allowed to just break covenants no you're not just allowed to break covenants whatever you agree to in that covenant you are supposed to keep and what's he talking about he's talking about the marriage covenant the agreement that you make with your wife stands okay and what did the Bible say you're not supposed to divorce except for the reason of fornication we'll see that in Matthew when I turn here just after we look at this passage but look at verse 15 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 and this is going to get real specific for the Lord the God of Israel sayeth that he hateth putting away so how does God feel about divorce is he okay with it is it just okay does he get divorced for any reason no it says he hateth putting away and it says for what covered violence with his garment saith the Lord of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously what's that mean betray the covenant that you have with your spouse that's what it's talking about he hates that so you can say whatever little clause you want whatever the Old Testament you know whatever Moses did for the hardness of their hearts or whatever but that's not how God intends it to be now turn to Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 you know I just get tired of people just like having all these little clauses of lie oh you know I caught my husband doing this or whatever you know and obviously look this is something I'll tell you that you need to understand kids and young people that haven't got married yet choose your spouse wisely there's a lot of people to pick from in this world and you don't have to pick the first one that you come along to we were in the store the other day my wife and we were looking I forget what we were looking at and I was like oh that one's a cool one she's like you don't have to pick the first one you come across I was like yeah that's a good point I don't let's look at some other stuff I don't even remember what we were looking at but she was like yeah okay I was like getting all like choosy real quick but it made me think about that like you don't have to do that with your spouse either you know the first one that likes you you don't have to go okay mom and dad this is the one I love it's like why don't you get to know them a little bit why don't you figure out that they want the same things as you do they believe the same things you do they want to be as zealous for God as you do but you know maybe there might be a detriment to you maybe you want to be you know driven to be more zealous and maybe they're a little more zealous than you are that might be a good thing for you but look at Matthew 5 31 it says it hath been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but I say unto you that whosoever that means anyone shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication that's what you do before marriage causeth her to commit adultery so you're causing that person to commit adultery if you divorce them for any reason besides fornication which is doing that deed before marriage cause look some people think that fornication and adultery are the same thing but I don't believe that that's what it's saying I think that fornication is different fornication is something you do before you're married and things you do when you should be married but adultery is something that you do when you are married but it also can be something you do when you're not married and you're doing it with someone that is married if that makes sense so you're committing both at the same time in reality if you're committing fornication and adultery because you're doing it with somebody that is married and you're not married so you're committing adultery again look at verse 33 you have heard that it has been said by them of old time thou should not forswear thyself unto the Lord thine oaths I think it's interesting how he just rolls right into this here too but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst make one hair white or black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay or yes or no for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil and like I said I think it's interesting that he just rolls from marriage to saying that so but what are you saying when you say the marriage vows do you promise to love him cherish him you know and sickness and health and poverty isn't wealth you know as long as you both shall live what do you say after that I do right yes I will it's basically like saying the same thing yes I will so whether you're swearing or not you're still saying you know he's saying let your communication just be yes or no and when you say those when someone asks has you do those vows if I marry someone they say those vows it's not optional you're gonna say the traditional vows or I'm not marrying you and you must say love honor and obey if you're the wife or I won't marry them you know I think that someone tried to pull a sneaky one on Pastor Anderson one time and tried to not put the obey part he said look I'm not gonna marry I'll stop the wedding right then and I won't marry you if you don't say obey and then she did it but like I would have to do I would do the same thing like the wedding's off you know it's over you know it'd be embarrassing right but if they're not gonna do it then it's over but I think this is a good point to to take here is that you're vowing to keep a covenant with them at that point aren't you so let your yay be yay and your nay be nay when you say you're gonna marry someone you're gonna be with them till death do you part keep that covenant and do what you say you're gonna do and if it's not for fornication then don't get divorced and if you don't stop the excuses and even after this they say well maybe it's good that we don't get married then and maybe it is good for you to not get married if you can't keep this commitment because there's a lot of people in this world that won't keep this commitment in fact 50% it might even be higher than that now it might even be 60% but god forbid it wouldn't be a Bible believing Christian that's in that same category but you know what they do get divorced and Bible believing Christians look marriage is hard folks marriage is not easy even for people that believe the same thing that have the same goals that want to have the same amount of kids all those things you agree and all those things but we're still humans we still have different tics about us and different things that annoy each other and that's just hard enough to live with someone else and it's hard enough to live with you let alone them you know what I mean so like it's hard to be married anyway sometimes obviously it's a great blessing it's a great joy obviously also but it is hard it is work and look if you're not going to just say yes and actually mean it then don't even do it don't do it don't be part of the marriage statistic now let's go to Matthew chapter 19 so in Matthew he mentions this a couple of different times and now the Pharisees are going to come to him and they're going to actually ask him a really stupid question I think it's a really stupid question and he actually kind of answers them in a really funny way because these are supposed to be the guys that know the Bible really well right look at Matthew 19 3 it says 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? just for whatever he feels like oh yeah you know you got fat honey it's time for divorce oh oh you know I just don't like that look you gave me yesterday divorce I mean every cause wouldn't that just mean anything you feel like? he just hates her for no reason? but is that what the Bible said? that you could just do it for whatever you want? no it didn't say that it said if you find some uncleanness in her and then you could do that but it wasn't something that God said he wants you to do that was for the hardness of your heart look what it says Matthew 19 4 says and he answered and sent him have you not read dummies? you can infer that in there that's in the Greek have you not read that he which made them at the beginning male and female so a lot of teachers need to understand this too male and female that's how he made them at the beginning there's no 69 genders or whatever just Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve not Adam and Edith or whatever other weirdos that you want to talk about they try to say that Adam was married to some other person Judith some witch doctrine listen it's only Adam and Eve male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain that means two shall be one flesh isn't that what it said in Genesis chapter 2 and Jesus is going back to Genesis chapter 2 he's referencing us to Genesis chapter 2 he says have you not read that verse morons this is what God taught this is how it was in the beginning where for there are no more twain but one flesh not two three four not multiple wives it's just one man one woman that's what God has always intended that's what he always intends and for men to have multiple wives it was permitted in certain aspects but it wasn't something that God wanted them to do it says where for there are no more twain but one flesh what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder so Ezra let not man put asunder Ezra God allowed them to get married they got married they got married and yeah it was wrong for them to do it but they still got married they still made the covenant and so what man God had put together let not man put asunder period they say unto him why did Moses think command to give a right to divorce men to put her away is that what he said is that what he did he commanded Moses command them to just get divorce for any reason I mean that's just a weird way to put it isn't it is that what Moses said he saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered he didn't command suffered means allowed allowed or suffered to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so so God's intention is not for people to get divorced right and I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another comitteth adultery it's right there in red letters or black and white if you just have a black and white edition what's it say shall if you marry another you're committing adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery it's plain and simple folks like there's nothing to backtrack or get around there's no end around to it now look I'm not trying to beat up people that have already gotten remarried and I shouldn't even have to just say that every time I preach about this I'm not picking on people who have been divorced or remarried I'm preaching this for people so they don't do that so that they think about who they're going to get married to they don't just rush off to the nearest bow hunk and get married to them because they're just so awesome or whatever and I can change them I know I can he'll change he loves me if they ain't coming to church now honey they ain't going to come to church when you marry him either it plays out the same way every time and if she ain't coming to church to the church you like right now and she's going to some liberal weak libtard church now she ain't going to come to Sure Foundation Baptist Church when she gets married to you either it's just a fact I mean how many times do you have to see it before it actually rings into your head and this isn't a fairy tale folks it's not Prince Charming's not going to pick you up in a pumpkin carriage and take you off to Never Never Land and then whatever look just be realistic people have problems everybody has problems but you don't want to develop the problem of marrying an unbeliever or someone that is going to treat you like dirt for the rest of your life and isn't going to love your kids and isn't going to love your God and isn't going to love your church and marry that person because you know what it's going to do it's going to make you miserable for the rest of your life and it's not worth it wait a little bit longer and God will bring somebody worth marrying to you let's turn to Romans chapter 7 Romans chapter 7 Romans chapter 7 actually let's skip Romans chapter 7 let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 basically in Romans chapter 7 it just talks about how a woman is bound to her husband as long as she liveth if her husband is dead she is loose from the law of her husband but I want to point out 1 Corinthians chapter 7 because a lot of times people say well if they are not believers or if they are a reprobate or something let me talk to you about this real quick you don't want to marry a reprobate and obviously Judas fooled the disciples I get that you don't want to marry a reprobate but think about Abigail the one that David married after her reprobate husband died but did she did she say I'm divorcing Nabal because he is a reprobate she didn't divorce him did she? and she still obeyed him for the most part I mean she did kind of still feed them and everything but you know the Bible says to obey in the Lord and so he was treating them ill and he was actually she stopped all of them from getting killed so what she did was actually right in the eyes of the Lord but God just killed that reprobate and then gave her a better husband because of the goodness that she showed unto David but obviously if you are stuck in that situation look there are a lot of situations I've seen where people are like my spouse is a reprobate or whatever and it's like they really weren't you know maybe they are not saved but maybe they are not a reprobate either but if they are a reprobate I don't think that that's a clause there is no clause in the Bible to divorce people because they are a reprobate look at 1 Corinthians 7 and this isn't even talking about reprobation it's talking about an unsaved person look at verse 11 verse 11 it says but if she depart let her remain unmarried it's talking about one being saved and the other not being saved let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife so in the context here of this chapter which is a long chapter I don't have time to go through the whole thing but it's talking about people that are saved and not saved marrying each other maybe they got saved after they are already married or whatever but let her remain unmarried so if someone if you break up and you are apart then just stay unmarried that's what it's saying or be reconciled to your husband so are you getting divorced is that what it's saying no let not the husband put away his wife so it's saying don't divorce them but to the rest speak I not the Lord if any brother hath a wife believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away what's that saying don't divorce them and the woman which hath a husband which believeth not and if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy but if the unbelieving depart let him depart not in bondage in such cases but God hath called us to peace but a lot of people will take this verse and they'll say see it's okay to divorce them is that what it's saying though no it's saying you're not in bondage to be like do the duties of a spouse like cause up above you know and the other verses talking about how you're supposed to do the duties of a spouse you know to lie you know they're not just allowed to just drop in anytime they feel like it because they're your spouse and do the you know hey I'm here cook me dinner and you know take care of my needs type of thing or whatever they're not allowed to just do that you're not in bondage to do those things when they just leave you high and dry and what not it says but God has called us to peace for what knowest thou O wife whether thou shalt save thy husband or how knowest thou O man whether thou shalt save thy wife so you're allowed to let them depart but again and then when people are like well what should I do if I don't divorce them then they're gonna you know this advantage is gonna happen with them it's like well you know but God is going to look out for you that's the thing and maybe he just will take care of business in a way that you don't know but here's the thing if you don't act in faith then it's gonna get worse for you if you just do things out of fear instead of doing them in faith then you're gonna it's gonna be worse you see what I'm saying now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 4 Ecclesiastes 5 verse 4 I know I've gone through a lot of stuff here but I'm getting close to wrapping it up here Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 4 I know I've really beaten this horse to death but you know I think it's important deal with a lot of sometimes you know the marriage issues are few and far in between but sometimes they're just like all of a sudden I'm getting piles of them and you know I think this is kind of a timely sermon to happen right now because it just kind of seems to be piling up a little bit so but I mean I'm not saying this to hurt people I want people to be helped by us so look at Ecclesiastes 5 verse 4 it says when thou vows to vow unto the God suffer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure and fools pay that which thou has vowed better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say thou before the angel that it was an error wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands so look when you vow to your spouse that you're going to stay with them that's what it means and you know who's God going to be angry with he's going to be angry with the person that refused to keep their vow you know and obviously it's saying pay but anything that you say and you don't do that you say that you're going to do for God he's going to keep he remembers even if you forgot that you said you were going to do it he does remember look at Psalm 15, this is a psalm that we sing sometimes, Psalm 15 and there's a pretty interesting little passage here but it says Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall abide in thy holy hill he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart he that it backbaiteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor in whose eyes a vile person is condemned but he on earth them that fear the Lord he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not so when you say you're going to do something and even if it hurts you to do that thing and you don't change God is pleased with that he that putteth not out his own money to use nor taketh reward against the innocent he that doeth these things shall never be moved so God is pleased and obviously Jesus said to swear not at all so there's a reason why he said that because a lot of times people will say things and they won't keep their word I mean do you think that the people that swore that they would kill the Apostle Paul before they eat another piece of bread that they kept that? Do you think that they actually starved to death? They probably didn't God probably found some interesting ways to kill them anyway though but what they vowed to do was pretty wicked you know but don't go saying things you're going to do and don't do them it's better to just not say you're going to do something don't say that you're going to do something don't do it so last thing here and this will be real quick but the list of those that are guilty of intermarriage it's going to give this list and I'm not going to read them all brother Eli can read them if he wants to but I'm just going to read the first verse here where it says verse 18 back in our text it says and among the sons of the priests that were found that had taken strange wives namely of the sons of Jeshua the son of Josadak and his brethren so who's Jeshua the son of Josadak? it's the high priest isn't it? and his brethren, Massiah Eleazar, Jerub and Gedaliah their hands that they would put away their wives and being guilty they offered a ram of the flock of their trespass and then it goes on and talks about some of the Levi's and of the people of Israel and it's kind of going over some of the chief men of all these and I'm not going to go through all of them because brother Eli did a masterful job already of not butchering their names like I would do so but it lists all these guys and it's probably not all of them but it's the main players here verse 44 says all these had taken strange wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children so again this is just telling us the historical fact of what happened here and what did they do? they divorced and they the Bible says if you don't take care of your own family you're worse than an infidel you're worse than an infidel these are infidels and they're worse than an infidel because they divorced their wives and cast their children aside now what should the right judgment have been what should the judgment have been that took place instead of divorcing their spouses let's turn to Leviticus chapter 21 Leviticus chapter 21 real quickly I just have that and then so I just have two more places Leviticus 21 and Ezra chapter 2 will be done Leviticus chapter 21 verse 7 so here's some of the qualifications of the Levites and obviously they had a lot of things that they had to do they had to have all these ceremonies of cleanliness and you know before they could offer and before they could do the priestly duties and everything and if they didn't do those things they couldn't they couldn't do their jobs right? so it's kind of like how pastors and deacons have qualifications and things like that but in Leviticus 21 verse 7 it says they shall not take a wife that is a whore or profane now what is profane? it means someone that's against the things of God basically like a heathen woman neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband someone that's divorced for he is holy unto his God thou shalt sanctify him therefore for he offereth the bread of thy God he shall be holy unto thee for I the Lord which sanctify you am holy now skip down to verse 13 it says and he shall take a wife in her virginity a widow or a divorced woman or profane or in harlot these shall he not take but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife so what's the rule? a virgin of his own people you can't take a heathen you can't take some woman that's profane you can't take a whore you can't take a harlot you can't take a divorced woman you can't even take a widow unless they're a widow of a priest that's the rule neither shall he profane his seed among his people for I the Lord do sanctify him so would you say that those are rules for them being priests? I would say so rules for them being Levites? now let's turn back over to Ezra chapter 2 and verse 61 remember the reckoning of the people going back into the land and there were certain of the priests that were not allowed to be reckoned with the rest of the priests because of what? because their genealogy was not accounted for look at verse 61 back in Ezra chapter 2 what was the judgment for them? verse 61 of the children of the priests, the children of Hebaiah, the children of Cos, the children of Barzillai which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called after their name these sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy but they were not found therefore were they as polluted put from the priesthood so why were they put from the priesthood? because they were not reckoned by genealogy so but it's okay to just divorce your wives well first of all they married strange wives they had children by these strange wives and then his result his judgment was to oh just divorce them and offer a ram and then you can still be a priest no that's not the right judgment is it? the right judgment is that not to be polluted and put from the priesthood also and whoever's left over they're the ones that are the priest is that like a ridiculous statement there? or is that true? verse 63 and the Tershotha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there should be a priest of Urim and Uthumbim so basically they were put away because they couldn't count their genealogy and they had mixed with heathen probably and so they were put from the priesthood and then they know for a fact that these guys did do that and then they say well just divorce them and offer a ram and you can still be in the priesthood that's wrong that's wrong what they did was worse and so this is why the children of Israel always seem to fail in the Old Testament because of things like this and so what are the takeaways? well don't overcompensate when a sin has taken place and go further than what the Bible says and number two God hates divorce very clear and he hates when people break their vows and when people say they're going to do something and they don't do it and you know I would just say this choose wisely or stay single because if you choose foolishly you know obviously you can choose the best of your ability and things can still go wrong so I mean obviously you've got to trust God to a certain point with your marriage and I'll just say this also because this is something I see a lot when I see people struggle in their marriages both sides are not willing to concede at some point both sides are just not willing to concede that they're wrong or not willing to give room to the other one and then they're just so bitter with each other that they can't work it out but you know there is still hope in this thing and I've seen some marriages go pretty rocky I've seen marriages where I'm just like you know it's like when Jesus says that person's possessed and then they're like they're foaming at the mouth and they're like and people are like he's dead there's marriages where I'm like that marriage is done I'm done I'm done helping and then all of a sudden it's back I'm like amen because there is still hope in this thing you know as long as you're still wanting to work things out you know things can get tough in marriages you go through seasons you go through hard points in your marriage but there is still hope in this thing you know and you're one flesh and you know sometimes you just gotta give some room you gotta suffer yourself to be defrauded sometimes and you gotta just be forgiving it can't be all about what you want all the time it's gotta be a two way street there and we're definitely different we're one flesh but we're different we're definitely different and sometimes we're really different but God made us that way you know so but there is still hope even if you're going through a rocky marriage or you know maybe you're in the honeymoon stage of your marriage you know but there are hard times coming but don't just let hard times make it be like this is over this is done you know with God all things are possible so don't forget that and then the last thing is that we need to judge righteous judgment so actually polluted versus genealogy genealogy polluted I mean in the beginning of this whole thing they should have been cast put forth from the priesthood because they couldn't reckon their genealogy because back then it was important but which one was worse they actually knew for sure that they were polluted and then still tried to keep them in so I mean obviously they're both bad but one's worse than the other isn't it and so to have that skewed judgment is what again we don't want to over correct to the point where we're just like running into the ditch alright let's pray it's a good book right Ezra we're done with it alright amen let's pray Lord thank you so much for this great book the book of Ezra Lord I pray that you just help us to Lord be a people of hope Lord and one thing this book has taught me is that we should have hope no matter what and that as long as we're Christians we're on the winning side and that we're always hashtag winning and that no matter what as saved people we're always going to come out on top I pray that you just bless each and every single married couple in our church Lord I pray you just help our marriages to be strong and Lord our child rearing to be strong and Lord for the people that are coming up in the next generation these young kids I pray Lord that they would take these things to heart Lord and Lord really seek after you when they're looking for a spouse and to find someone that is their spiritual equal and Lord if they're not very spiritual I pray they get more spiritual and then marry their spiritual equal Lord I pray that you just bless us as we go our separate ways tonight I pray you bless this house and fill it up as we celebrate the resurrection on Sunday and I pray that you bless our soul winning on Saturday for us in Jesus name we pray Amen All right our last song is 594 Have I done my best for Jesus song 594 Have I done my best for Jesus Song 594 Have I done my best for Jesus Song 594 Have I done my best for Jesus Let's sing it together on the first I wonder Have I done my best for Jesus Who died upon the cruel tree To think of his great sacrifice at Calvary I know my Lord expects the best from me How many are the lost that I have lifted How many are the chained I've helped to free I wonder Have I done my best for Jesus When he has done so much for me The hours that I've wasted are so many The hour I spent for Christ so few Because of all my lack of love for Jesus I wonder if his heart is breaking too How many are the lost that I have lifted How many are the chained I've helped to free I wonder Have I done my best for Jesus When he has done so much for me I wonder Have I cared enough for others Or have I let them die alone I might have helped to wonder to the Savior The seed of precious life I might have sown How many are the lost that I have lifted How many are the chained I've helped to free I wonder Have I done my best for Jesus When he has done so much for me No longer will I stay within the valley I'll climb to mountain heights above The world is dying now for want of someone To tell them of the Savior's matchless love How many are the lost that I have lifted How many are the chained I've helped to free I wonder Have I done my best for Jesus When he has done so much for me Amen Amen