 Alright, today we're in Malachi chapter 2. We're looking at verses 10 through 17. We're looking at abominable marriages. Now somebody says, I already have that. Why do we have to talk about that? But we will be looking at that subject, and it really is a very important subject to look at. And so we'll be looking at verses 10 through 17, and the portion of Scripture that we're looking at today, the Lord is going to emphasize that it's His desire to have godly offspring. And so let's begin reading together Malachi chapter 2 at verse 10. I'll read to verse 17, and we'll get into our study. Malachi chapter 2, beginning at verse 10, reading to verse 17. Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profanying the covenant of the fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel, in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign God. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awakened aware, and who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with good will from your hands. Yet you say for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your Spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce. For it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your Spirit that you do not deal treacherously. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, in what way have we wearied him? In that you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them, or where is the God of justice? As we've been going through Malachi, we've noted that the priesthood, the Jewish priesthood, has been radically condemned by God through the prophet Malachi. And as we've been going up to this point here from chapter one into chapter two, we've seen how that the Lord has made it very clear that the priesthood has misrepresented God in a variety of ways, and the nation is suffering because of what they've done. The ultimate result has been that God's true religion was transformed into a sham. Now interestingly enough, today it's popular to speak down about religion. We, in my generation, we, Jesus freaks, the Jesus movement people, one of the things that we would say very clearly and quite often and very loudly was that we don't have a religion, we have a relationship. All of us has in one way or another probably said that. And you know, the point we were trying to make was that we're not part of some system of religious belief. We don't simply identify ourselves by a particular denominational identification. We don't say that we are of this denomination or that. That's what we were trying to say at that time. We're trying to say that God isn't wanting me, wanting us to have simply what would be called a religious faith because there is a true faith and there is a faith that is actually spoken of in the book of James as being what we would call devil faith. The demons believe in fear. You know, James made that clear. He said, you believe in one God, that's good, but do you not know that the devils, the demons themselves believe and they fear. So there is something that has been called devil faith or demon faith. It's simply an acknowledgement, the reality that there is a God and that demons are subject to him. Even as the scripture says, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now that includes everything created. That includes the angelic hosts, you know, that that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God. And you can read in your New Testament how that Jesus will encounter demon possessed individuals and the demon will say, have you come to torment us before our time? We know who you are, the Holy One of God. So demons have an awareness of who God is. And so when we were young and when we were saved, we would say, you don't want to have just a religion, you want to have a relationship. But you need to remember also that there is a false religious belief, but there is a true religion also. There is such a thing as true religion. And I'm not talking about, you know, pants or a store or whatever. There is true religion. True religion is built on a solid foundation, the solid foundation of loving God and obedience to his word. In Psalm 119, the Psalmist said, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. You see, God is loving and merciful. And God reveals himself to us in the word as being compassionate. And God desires us to also receive his kindness. And when you have received the kindness of the Lord and when you are walking in his way, it's revealed in how you treat other people. It demonstrates that you really have been connected to the God of this universe who is rich in mercy. He refers to himself as being kind. In 1st John, in chapter three, verse 17, John said, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? In James 1.27, James said, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. There was an occasion where the Lord Jesus Christ was asked a question. The question he was asked is, what is the great command in the law? We've all read that portion of scripture. We all remember that. And when this question was asked of him, Matthew tells us in chapter 22, verses 37 through 40 that Jesus, speaking to the one who asked the question, said, you shall love the Lord, the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. What is the great commandment? Love God. Love your neighbor. Love God. On this, all the law and the prophets will be fulfilled. You need to love because that is a demonstration that you have a relationship with the God who is called love. So God's true religion is a religion of compassion and love, a religion of love of his word and a concern for people. And it was being polluted. This true religion is being polluted by an unfaithful priesthood. Their misrepresentation of the Lord has had a terrible effect on the nation because God himself is being ridiculed. The offerings that were being offered to him are actually considered defiled. And he's being held in contempt even as Malachi has been saying, he's being held in contempt by the people of Israel. Now the priests, according to verse 8, had corrupted the covenant of Levi. They had done so by their false interpretation and teaching of the law and by their bad examples. They corrupted the covenant through inattention to its demands. And what they've been doing is bad enough, but the Lord has even more that he needs to deal with. Now, as we look at this just briefly, let's remember something here. Let's remember that Malachi isn't making this up from his own heart. This is not a message that Malachi just looking out there at the condition of the nation. This isn't a message that he kind of sat down and invented saying, now what would be the answer or the solution to this problem? He wasn't trying to create a message of some sort simply because he had a burden for how people were acting and all of that because this message didn't originate in his own mind. It wasn't something that he invented. You see, false prophets and false teachers will give stories to people that they have made up because they have intent to draw these people after themselves. And therefore, many times they'll say things that they think people want to hear in order that they might draw disciples after themselves. You see that in the old and you see that in the new. Malachi was not a person making up or inventing this. He was actually given a message that God had given to him. But false teachers will say something to draw people to themselves. You see it in Jeremiah 14 verse 14 where it reads, the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. God is saying they bring in a message to you that they're claiming this from me, but I'm telling you, I didn't say that. You see that in the Old Testament, you can actually multiply that many times. You also see it in the New Testament, in the book of Titus, for example, in chapter 1 verses 10 and 11 where Paul said, there are many who rebel against right teaching. They engage in useless talk and deceive people. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced by the wrong teaching. They have already turned whole families away from the truth. Such teachers only want your money. I know we don't have any teachers like that today. This is just something that. Now, Malachi, Malachi was a genuine messenger of the Lord. He was a genuine prophet of God. When you look at verse 7 of chapter 2, verse 7 makes it clear that the priests were in reality God's messengers. It says there, Malachi 2.7, the lips of a priest should keep knowledge. People should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. You should go to a spiritual leader expecting to receive spiritual insight. He is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. And so people ought to go to the priest who, as we saw last time, were together who keeps knowledge. And I mentioned to you that the priest was supposed to protect or guard the knowledge of God. That's what he did. And the people, when they came to him, should be seeking the law from his mouth. They should be seeking from him instruction concerning how to live in a way that pleases God. That's the reason people should go in the church age. That's the reason why people should choose a fellowship to attend. It's so that they would hear the word of God and seek knowledge of the word of God when they go to church. Not everybody does that, unfortunately, today, but that's what we're supposed to do. You see, the priests were God's messengers and they were intended to communicate clearly and soberly what it is that pleases the Lord. You see that in the Old Testament book of Leviticus in chapter 10, verses 8 through 11, where it says the Lord spoke to Aaron saying, Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink. You know your sons with you when you go into the tabernacle of meeting lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations that you may distinguish between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean. And that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses. You're not to be imbibing, you're not supposed to be getting drunk and then going out there trying to present the things of God. He said, Stay away from that. You're supposed to be teaching them the things that God has said. And so Malachi is a genuine messenger of the Lord of hosts, even as we have seen it in the very first verse of chapter one when he spoke of the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. So he was bringing God's word, a messenger of the Lord of hosts. And so what has happened is because the priests have been diminishing the Lord, God says, I'm dealing with you. And we saw that in verse nine when he said to the priests, I have, I also have made you contemptible and based before all the people because you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in the law. And so he's making it very clear that because the priests were corrupt, God humiliated them before the people. They had degraded the Lord by their ungodly lives and he's humiliated them before Israel. And so as we see this, they're continuing this. And so he now begins to speak in verse 10 by saying, have we not all one father has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profanying the covenant of the fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah has profanied the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He's married the daughter of a foreign God. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, the man who does this, being awake and aware and who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. So Malachi now begins to confront, he begins to confront the nation concerning another sin. And I want you to see this and we're going to be looking at this in some detail today. It's a sin that is very grievous before the Lord. This is a sin that has classically been referred to as abominable marriages. Now the term abominable marriage relates to what is recognized as unsanctioned and unholy marriages. We need to remember, and let me lay a foundation for you here as we look at this together, we need to remember that the marriage vow is one of the most sacred and holy promises that a human being can make. The marriage vow is one of the most sacred promises that a human being will make. It is a binding vow. You see, when you look at vows and all, when you see oaths and oath and a vow is the same basic word, when somebody becomes a naturalized citizen in the United States, this person will take a vow. They take an oath of faithfulness to the country. If somebody came from another country and they come to the United States and they go through the process to become a naturalized citizen after going through whatever it is that they need to do in order to be made eligible, they ultimately are going to take an oath of faithfulness. And this is what they will say. They repeat this when the judge is bringing them into citizenship. This is what they say. This is the vow that they take. I hear my declare on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate state or sovereignty of whom or which I have here to form been a subject or citizen that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear truth, faith and allegiance to the same, that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law, that I will perform non-combatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by law, that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by law, and that I will, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me God. That's the oath that people take when they become citizens here in the United States. They take an oath, but here's something about that oath. A naturalized citizen can legally renounce that vow, and they become what is called an expatriate. So even though they went through all of the various hoops and jumped through all those hoops and all and became an American citizen and even took an oath of faithfulness to the nation, at a certain point should they decide without any duress and understand the consequences, they can renounce their citizenship, they can renounce that oath, even though they said, so help me God. The United States allows that. That's a vow that is being made that the United States allows to be broken, but a marriage vow is not a temporary vow. A marriage vow is not to be renounced, because when I was married, I made a promise. I made a promise not just to the minister who was officiating, not just to the witnesses who were standing there making sure I didn't run away, not just to the beautiful young lady who was holding on to me making sure I didn't run away, not simply in front of the group of people who assembled that day in that backyard there in Norwalk when we got married at my parents' house. I know how to spend money on parties. The chairs we got were from a place called Chapel of Memories, which is a funeral home, but they they let you have the chairs for free. Anyway, when I made that vow, it wasn't just to Marie, it wasn't to the witnesses, it wasn't simply to the minister. It was to God. It was to God. I said to Marie, as I vowed to God, as I made a pledge in an oath, as I made this statement, I said, I will be with you in sickness and in health for richer and for poorer forever. That was the vow. And I have to tell you, when I took that vow, I was very serious and I was very scared. As much as I knew that I cared about this young lady, that was such an oath that was so powerful. It was so real that I actually stammered out. I still remember I opened up the book of Ephesians, chapter five. I started to read to Marie and I the words seemed to swim on the page in front of me as I was reading it. It was such a such a powerful moment where it seemed as if the Lord was pressing upon me. This is not simply something you're saying this is not going to be a marriage you try out and it doesn't work, you're just better at the next one. Because today we have a term in our society called starter marriages and some of you have heard that. Starter marriages. What that's simply talking about is, well, if it doesn't work this way, it's our starter marriages. Like I'm going to buy two houses, the first house I'll get so I just kind of break in and then I'll sell it, make something and then I'll get the house that I really like and maybe, well, that's kind of how some people are looking at marriage today. That's how many are. It's this. I mean, listen, there are programs today where they're getting married at first sight. I think that's the name of a program or something like that. They're getting married without even knowing why because we have devalued marriage to the place that we make it into a reality TV program today. That's what's happened in the United States. I wish I could give you the source. This is from memory and thus I don't remember the exact source though. I do have it on file somewhere. One of the people I was reading as it relates to marriage years ago now was pointing out that atheists have a less of a divorce rate than those who claim to be born again Christians. Atheists remain faithful in marriages at a greater degree than evangelical Christians. Think about that for a minute. Think about that for a moment. Someone who doesn't even believe the vow that they're making is to God is more faithful than the one who claims to have a relationship with God. So what we're looking at is we're looking at how God speaks about and teaches us related to marriage. Marriage is not a temporary vow. When I made my vow, it was not a temporary vow. It was a promise and it was to God. In Numbers 30, verse two, the writer says, Moses said, if a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. When you make a vow to God, you don't break your word. You do what you said. In Deuteronomy 23, verse 23, that which has gone from your lips, you shall keep and perform. For you voluntarily vowed to the Lord, your God, what you have promised with your mouth. You see, the marriage vow is a vow made to God. It's also, of course, made to a person. It's made to that spouse and it's of utmost importance. So to make the vow and then break it with little or no concern is condemned by God. Now in verse 10, Malachi asks, have we not all one father has not one God created us. So men and women have been created in the image of God. As such, they both stand in relationship with the God who created them. Now as Jews, both male and female stood in a special covenant relationship with God. In Isaiah 43, verse one, it reads, but now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. So they had a covenantal relationship with God and this relationship that Israel had with their God was intended to be permanent. And it's God who created this unity you see in allowing the divorce of Jewish wives in order that the Jewish wife might marry a heathen, Israel was bringing division into the nation and that violated God's requirement for them to remain separate from unbelievers as his people. You see, when God was beginning his dealings with the nation of Israel, he gave them all these laws in the Old Testament. You know, sometimes we speak about the laws that God gave to Israel and we may think in terms of like 10 laws, the 10 commandments, but there were some 613 specific commands that God gave to the nation. And when you think concerning those commandments and all that God gave to them, he gave them a commandment for them to remain his special people, a unique people that were to have a relationship with him. They were different than all the nations on the face of the earth. And that's what you're reading in Deuteronomy 7 when it says in verses 1 through 4, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, Gurgoshites, Amorites, Canaanites, Parasites, Hivites, Jebusites, Salulites, Termites, Uptites and Adesites. I just never can, I just, I fall into that temptation every time I read those aites. Seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son nor take their daughter for your son. Why? They will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. Why are you not to have a marriage with an unbeliever? God says because they'll turn your heart away from me and I will judge you for it. You see God gave specific instructions regarding marriage and marriage was to be entered into with only other believers. Exodus chapter 34 verses 12 through 16, take heed to yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst, but you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice and take of his daughters for your sons and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. Don't intermarry, why? Because they will take your heart away from me. Intermarriage is forbidden because it was safeguarding the nation of Israel against the importation of idolatry into the nation. Remember the wisest king in the Old Testament, you remember his name, King Solomon? King Solomon, God was speaking to King David's beloved son Solomon and paraphrasing said to him, ask of me anything you will. You can ask as high as the heavens and I'll give it to you. What do you want? You remember how Solomon spoke to the Lord and said again paraphrasing, he said, I'm just a child, I don't even know how to go out and come back in. How am I going to be able to lead such a great nation that belongs to you? If you give me anything, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. And the Bible tells us that God was so pleased with the prayer of Solomon that he said you didn't ask for the life of your enemies, you didn't ask for riches untold. Because you didn't ask for these kinds of things and you wanted wisdom, I will give you wisdom as well as the things you didn't ask for. And he became the legendary wisest man who ever lived. And yet in first Kings chapter 11 verses one through four, King Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites, the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their God. Solomon clung to these in love. He had seven hundred wives. He's not that wise. He had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods. And his heart was not loyal to the Lord, his God, as was the heart of his father, David. He started out well, started out well. But as he grew older, his heart was turned away exactly as God had warned them. So the result was the importation of idolatry into the nation of Israel. The Bible tells us in 1 Kings chapter 11 verses seven and eight, Solomon built a high place for Chimosh, the abomination of Moab on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrifice to their gods. In Nehemiah in chapter 13, 25 through 27, you are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon, king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations, there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over Israel. But even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women? So in the Old Testament, it's very clear, very clear that the children of Israel were not to intermarry with the heathens. Somebody says, well, that's the Old Testament. Well, the command against that kind of marital relationship is still in effect. Paul spoke of this in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians chapter six. He says that verses 14 through 16 do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? What accord is Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. God in the Old as well as the new forbids what he calls abominable marriages. When Paul was being asked a series of questions in 1 Corinthians, one of the questions related to if a woman's husband dies, is she free to remarry? And Paul answered that question in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 39, when he says, if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. So yes, you have freedom to remarry, but only in the Lord. Somebody said, if you willfully disobey God and marry a non-Christian, do not be God yourself with the belief that you will be the cause of your husband or wife's conversion by the grace of God that may possibly happen. But it usually does not. Mixed marriages usually end in great unhappiness or divorce. And even if that is not the case, you will certainly bring much unnecessary sorrow upon yourself by disobedience. And that's true. I remember a young woman who came into my office. No, she called me up and she said, pastor, I'd like you to pray for me. She was in high school and I said, what can I pray for? And she says, well, I met this guy and I really like him and I'd like to have him for my boyfriend. Can you pray for me? I said, no, I'm not match.com. I said, you want me to pray that you might have a boyfriend? She says, oh yeah. And I said, may I ask a question? She said, yes. I said, is this young man that you want to date, this young man that you want as your boyfriend, to see a believer in Christ? No. He's not a believer? No. But you want me to pray that God will give you a relationship with this young man? Yes. I said, why do you think I should pray that? She says, because Jesus said, if you ask anything, I will do it. So she knew enough Bible to be confused. But you know what, that is common. I can multiply that story. I have others that are very much the same, very much the same. Where somebody wanted something contrary to what God's word actually says, and they thought they could circumvent that, that they were going to be the people who actually proved that that scripture wasn't saying what it actually did say. God in the Old Testament and the New Testament refers to marriages where a believer voluntarily is marrying a non-believer. He calls that abominable. It's wrong. It's not pleasing to him. What does light have in common with darkness? When a Christian is showing an interest in dating somebody who doesn't know the Lord, they're revealing their real relationship with God. They're revealing that. What in common does someone who's in love with Jesus have with someone who doesn't care that Jesus died on the cross for them? Something that was said many years ago that has stayed within me, and I say it often, is when we voluntarily enter into sinful relationship, when we know that God's word has already said, do not do that, it is like kissing the tip of the spear that was driven into the body of Jesus. That's what we're doing. We're joining the crowd that said crucify him. That's what we're doing because we don't care because what we want right now is much more important than what he has done for us. And that reveals where I really stand with the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to notice in verse 11 that God refers to marriage as his holy institution. It is his holy institution. It is his holy institution. Marriage was not invented by men. I remember reading something by a, what we used to call a woman's liver, now we just call them women, but a woman's liver where she said that men invented that because you licensed dogs, cars, and women. And that's how they thought. Marriage wasn't invented by a man to enslave women. The Bible says it very clearly that God refers to it as his holy institution. It is a holy institution that God created, and as such he loves this institution. And so as he speaks concerning this, this holy institution, he goes on in verse 12 and he says, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, and who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And so he says, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob this man. Notice he's the man who's described as being awake and aware. That's an interesting phrase, awake and aware, being awake and aware. Awake and aware is a term that was used to refer to a teacher and pupil. Awake and aware. They're awake and aware because they've been taught and they know better. And because, and here's the thing, because they have been taught and they know better, they are held accountable for what they know. And the penalty is, may the Lord cut them off. May they be separated or excommunicated. May the Lord cut off the tents of Jacob. That means that their offerings will not be acceptable because they have an unrepentant heart. The Lord isn't going to receive it. You bring your offering to the Lord and you remember you have ought against a brother, or you remember a brother has ought against you. You first go and reconcile with the brother, then you bring your offering. That's how it works. Even in the New Testament, Jesus taught that. So he says they have an unrepentant heart. This isn't something that God is going to accept. And then he goes on into verse 13 and he says, and this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying so he does not regard the offering anymore nor receive it with good will from your hands. They're not only guilty of divorcing in order to marry heathens, but he says you're also acting as hypocrites. They thought they could willfully and blatantly disregard God's word and still be blessed. They brought offerings. They wept at the altar. They expected God to bless their sinful lives. Their insincere worship was not accepted by God because repentance had to come first. I have had many conversations and so have you more than likely with people who say, I don't understand why my life isn't being blessed anymore. It was at one time. It's not anymore. And then when you begin to ask what's going on and they begin to share with you the things they've been doing in all and sometimes they've been practicing sinful lives and they're just not walking with God and and and but they don't understand why they're not being blessed. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. What's whoever a man so is that also shall he reap. If you sow to the flesh from the flesh, you shall reap. You will reap corruption. The scripture says so to the spirit from the spirit you received life. But if you sow to the flesh from the flesh, you shall reap corruption. You are going to reap what you sow. And people sometimes don't understand that. They thought that their insincere worship, at least we're there. We're showing up. He says, no, I'm not receiving it. You need to repent. He says in verse 14 that you say for one reason, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she's your companion, your wife by covenant. But did he not make them one having a remnant of the spirit and why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. So you say verse 14 for what reason? He says the Lord is a witness between you. She is your companion. She is your wife by covenant. You can't discard her. You can't discard her. Marry a heathen and then come back and expect to be blessed. He says you have dealt with it treacherously. The word treacherously speaks of deceitfully or faithlessly. You have been deceitful and unfaithful. Now in verse 15, the question is asked, but did he not make them one by having a remnant of the spirit? Did he not make them one? Make them one. There's one man. There's one woman. There's one couple in him. Did he not make them one? The two shall become one flesh. The original intent of the Lord obviously was one man, Adam, one woman, Eve, and one lifetime. When he says having a remnant of the spirit, what does he mean? God could have created many women for Adam. He had enough power to do that. It wasn't that he was limited to only having the creative ability to create one man and one woman. He said, that's it. I can't do anything else. He created one man and one woman, though he had the power to create 10,000 women had he wanted to. He chose not to because what he wanted to do was establish the foundations of what a family actually is with the intent of producing godly offspring. Children who worship and love the Lord. That's what God wants. In verse 15, did he not make them one? Having a remnant of the spirit and why one? He seeks godly offspring. And the best way to have a potential to have godly children is to have a husband who loves the wife, wife who loves the husband and remains together for a lifetime, loving the Lord. That's the best way. I want to make it clear right here at this point that I do not in any way, and I don't think any of you think that I would, but I'm saying it anyway just because I should. I would never judge and do not judge any person who's ever gone through a horrible divorce of broken marriage and the broken heart that goes along with that. Forgive me if you even would think that. I don't. My heart goes out to people who got married, made their vows and divorced. It didn't just break your heart though, did it? It broke the heart of others. It broke the heart of a mom who had prayed for you. It broke the heart perhaps of a dad who had prayed for you. It broke the heart of all who loved you, and it breaks the heart of the children that were born to a union that was shattered through divorce. I really believe very strongly, the Bible teaches this very specifically, that God intends to show us how great he is in our marriages and that God can give us the ability to overcome with him. We can. Why did Moses command that people should get a divorce, and Jesus says, no, he didn't command it. He permitted it, and he permitted it because of the hardness of your hearts, not because that was God's design or God's will, but because you have calloused hearts and you didn't allow God's spirit to work or for whatever reason, you weren't able to see that he could. I have spoken to young people, some very young people who have gone through divorce, who have known me very well, and I have said to them, you may not have had a real good example when your mama and your daddy were together and divorced, but I would encourage you, I have said, and this may be misunderstood, but I have said this, I would encourage you to use Marie and me as an example, because we've gone through so many things together, and with Jesus we've always made it through. We can be an example to you. We have been in love and worked at our marriage for a long time, and we can say, God is able, and as much as it could be misunderstood when I speak of marriage and people could think, oh, that I think I've got the greatest marriage, I do, but I have a great wife, I have a great wife, I've told Marie, I've said you could have married a man like Hitler and you'd have still been a great, great woman, and that's a fact, that's a fact. I mean, I know that, I'm very blessed, and I say that with all humility, I've got a great wife, but she has a husband who loves her, and together we can make it, together we can make it, and what has kept us together, our faith in Christ, our vows to God, our desire to serve him, and our awareness that our children need an example to follow. On one occasion one of my sons approached me and he was speaking to me, and this is when they were in high school, and they used a word that is a word I feel is an improper word, it wasn't a huge terrible dirty word, they don't swear in front of me, but he used a slang word I didn't like, and I looked at him and I said, I don't like that word, and he, you know, he was filling his oats that day, I guess, you know, well so-and-so uses it, so when you woke up, we talked some, the conversation continued, so I said, so-and-so uses that word, he goes, yeah, I said, is so-and-so your dad, I said, then you don't use him as your example, do you, you use me, do I, speak like that, no dad you don't, I said, and neither do you, because I am your example, so I take these things very seriously, my children growing up, as I've said this before, had devotions five nights out of the week, five nights, the other two nights, they were in church, they were on Wednesday night, and when I was teaching Sunday nights, they were in Sunday nights, seven days out of the week, my children had prayer, when they would go to school in the morning, little kids from kindergarten up into high school, we would hold their hands, I'd lay hands on them, Monday through Friday as they went to school, in Jesus' name remember who you are, may God be with you today, my children, that's the kind of dad I was, but I still held on with all of my might through their teen years, when they decided they were going to form their own testimony and see how far they could go, and still be Christians, was it hard, yes, did we weep, yes, was our heart broken more than once, yes, I have awakened myself in tears for my children, crying in my sleep, why am I telling you this, I'm going to take an offering in a minute for my kids, no, why, because it's a battle, it's a war, all you need to do is think of your children when they were small, if you're a parent, or drive by a school, I drive by the school here at the corner, Monday through Friday, you see these beautiful little babies, about six years old riding their little bicycles and playing, and I look at them, I look at them, I love those babies, I really do, I love those little children, there's something in my heart, I see the precious sweet innocence of those babies, and I realize in 10 years, where will they be, what will they be doing, some of those kids, those little precious little girls, mama combs their hair so pretty, and puts on that pretty little dresser outfit, they're 13, they're going to be having sex, they may be having a baby by the time they're 14, some of those little guys who are playing cowboy, and they're playing, they're going to be carrying a gun someday, and they're going to shoot somebody, if somebody is going to do that, they're going to kill somebody, someone's going to do that, that's just a fact, that's a stat, so my heart gets burdened for them, God loves our children, he desires godly children, and when a husband and a wife do not take the marriage about seriously, their children will not take a relationship with God seriously, they don't, they do what daddy does, not what daddy says, so anytime if you have a little girl, little boy, and a mama who loves Jesus, and a dad who's kind of like so-so, they're going to be more like dad than mom, that's what happens, when a husband leads the home, the children know there's a strength there, they know that there's a leader in that home, they know that this matters, and that mama, that mama respects that man for his godliness, God gave me an exceptionally godly woman, that's a fact, I don't say that with a weird boastfulness, it's just fact, I didn't make her that way, but if you asked her, she would tell you this, because she just said it recently in a marriage thing that we did together, she said what drew me to Jesus Christ, she said this, was the love of con that I experienced at the Bible study that David was teaching, they had love and I didn't, and she said I married a man who loves the Lord, and that's what makes me a strong woman, it's a fact, I didn't say that she did, I'm just capitalizing on it, to make myself look good tonight, but it's a fact, husbands we love our wives, but we love them even as Christ loved the church, and he gave himself for it, God's desire in marriage is not just for the husband and the woman to have relationship, but for them to give that relationship to their children, so that their children would grow up, and he's saying they would grow up to know him, but if you're going out and divorcing, there's just no future for your children, and then he says in verse 16, and we'll move to a closing, the Lord God of Israel says he hates divorce, it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts, therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously, you have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say in what way have we wearied him, in that you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them, or where is the God of justice? Notice the Lord God of Israel verse 16 says he hates divorce, why? It covers one's garment with violence, now it's interesting when you read the Bible, the Bible actually says things that God hates, you might find this interesting, for example in Proverbs chapter 6 verses 16 through 19, it says there that God hates certain things, he hates hotty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who sows discord among brothers, isn't that interesting? He hates people who gossip and divide, he hates that, and he says these things I hate, these things I detest, these six things I hate, yeah he's seven, these are destructive sins, and he says I detest these things, I hate these things, but it's interesting that he hates divorce, why? Notice he says it covers one's garment with violence, now what do you mean it covers one's garment with violence? A garment is a picture of protection, it's a picture of security, it can even be used as a picture of love. In the book of Exodus in chapter 22 verses 26 and 27, it says if you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge you shall return it to him before the sun goes down for, that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin, what will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to me, I will hear for I'm gracious, it's his garment for his skin, what will he sleep in? It's a picture of protection, it's a covering, he's saying divorce removes the symbol of love and protection, that marriage was to have put in that relationship, and it ends up destroying life, that's what happens, it destroys lives. And then he finally says in verse 17 you've wearied the Lord with your words, you've argued that you could remain doing what you've been doing and still be blessed, you don't even admit that you wearied him, but you have and you will be judged. Now when it says where is the God of justice, just because he hasn't moved yet, does not mean he will not move. I don't know how many parents I have in this room here, but if you're a parent and your child's old enough perhaps you identify with this, sometimes when my kids were small they'd do something that really deserved a quick response, sometimes you should move quickly, but other times they did something that I thought I'm going to give them a moment maybe a little time to think instead of acting and reacting quickly. I'll give them a little bit of time so they'll think just because I didn't move quickly didn't mean I wasn't going to move. I just waited because who knows maybe they'll come to their senses and I can unchain them from their wall, I don't know. Maybe they'll wake up, they're cruising, we used to say cruising for a bruise and they're moving in a direction, they're not going to be happy when they get dealt with, so you would wait, but just because you don't move quickly doesn't mean you're not going to move, and just because somebody does something seems to get away with it doesn't mean they will always get away with it because the Lord is patient, he's long-suffering, he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and sometimes he'll give you some time. In Romans 2 verse 4 the question is asked, do you despise the riches of his goodness forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Don't you realize that God hasn't come down hard on you yet because he loves you and he's given you time so that you can actually come to your senses and turn to him and say God be merciful to me a sinner aren't you glad that God gave you however long it was until that day came that you said yes to him? For me it was 20 years, for me it was 20 years, that's a lot of patience, for others it's a lot longer, others it could be 30, 40, 50, something, we had a man get saved in this church who was in his 80s, that's a lot of patience that little old man, that little old sinner man, there's no sinner like an old sinner I promise you, and God has patience and so they're saying well where's the God of justice he hasn't done anything yet if you say this is so wrong well that doesn't mean that he won't move just because he hasn't so you don't say that at all he's saying you won't even admit you've weird him but you have and if you don't repent you will be judged well that's a sober warning from the prophet who's got a word from the Lord to the nation of Israel and he says you need to turn and you need to come back