Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's take our Bible, then turn to the book of Genesis chapter number two.
[00:00:10] Genesis, chapter number two.
[00:00:30] It all right.
[00:00:34] We're going to start in verse number 15 in Genesis chapter two and read to the end of the chapter. Let's pray and then we'll begin reading. Our Lord as we come tonight. We thank you so much, first of all, for saving us as we sang the good songs a minute ago about Your goodness to us and that You've brought us into a relationship with you through the Lord Jesus Christ, through Your bloodshed for us. Thank you for that, lord. Thank you for giving us new life. Thank you for Your people that are here as well as those that can't be here and listening in. Thank you for them. Thank you for the work of Your Spirit in each one of our hearts. Lord, I pray that you would tune our hearts and our minds into Your word, Lord, that we would just exactly agree with what You've said and we would place value on that upon which you place value.
[00:01:37] And Lord, as we look at these beginnings that You've established in Genesis chapter two, lord, just increase us in knowledge and wisdom. And Lord, I pray especially that you'd bless the families that are in our church and the husbands and the wives and the marital relationships and the children. Lord, please protect the families in our congregation.
[00:02:01] And Lord, we pray you bless our time tonight as we look in Your Word that you would teach us, especially in Jesus name we ask. Amen.
[00:02:10] All right, genesis chapter two, verse number 15 is where we'll start. I'm going to start covering this because here in the past several weeks, I've had conversations with different people dealing with questions on this subject.
[00:02:28] And because it is a very important subject and is a subject around which there is a fair amount of I want to say confusion, for sure, some disagreement.
[00:02:41] But I think there's a segment of people that this subject is to them, it might be a little bit sensitive because some people have been affected by things that we'll look at tonight and then later as well.
[00:03:02] That sensitivity and that reality of life has caused it raises questions that I think need to be answered and need to be addressed. So what we're going to look at tonight, we're just kind of going to kind of dip our toe into the subject a little bit and continue later is the subject of marriage, divorce. And course I got a number of questions from Brother McBriar because Brother Josh and I are good friends and we talk regularly and so he was getting prepared for a question and answer at Tabernacle. And so we were asking questions because it seems like people think that's the only requirement for a bishop is the husband of one wife. Like there is nothing else in the Bible.
[00:03:50] But always this subject comes up always this subject comes up, so I want to look at it.
[00:03:57] And this is not a subject that I'm unfamiliar with whatsoever, not personally, obviously, but my family has had divorce and remarriage multiple times in multiple levels in the generations of my family. So this is something I've dealt with personally. It doesn't mean I have all the answers for sure. And I just want to say from the outset, as we get into this, that the way God originally made it is best and right, and as time goes on, it's kind of like a stream at its source. A stream starts out pure, and when it comes out of the Earth, it starts out pure. But as it goes downstream, it gets muckier and muckier and muckier and muckier until you get down to the delta, the river delta, and it's just nasty. You don't want to be there because people have been doing all kinds of stuff, dumping stuff in it, and you don't want to touch that water. Although I have to say, just as a little bit of comical relief, my kids and I several years ago went on a hike at Paris Table Rock, and we ran out of water and it was hot. You all remember that. And so we decided way up on top of Table Rock there's these little streams. And so we decided we're going to drink a little bit of the water from there because it was hot and we were tired, we got sick, and even though it was way up there. So my illustration doesn't always apply in every case, so don't take it too far. But generally speaking, we'll say it like this.
[00:05:31] Generally speaking, whenever sin, okay, start there. Anytime there is a disillusion of a marriage, sin has happened at some point. It doesn't happen independent, separate from everything else. Something has happened to cause God's way and God's original order to be destroyed.
[00:05:57] And that is always sin in some way. And here's the reality. Anytime that sin gets in anything, it gets nasty and it gets mucky and it gets confusing. And some questions on this subject that we will hopefully approach. Listen, I don't want to be afraid to address questions on the subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage because they're difficult. But I also don't want to be afraid to say, I don't know because there aren't always easy answers. And I'll give you several examples when we study this subject. But there are absolutely situations that there's no pastor on Earth, no matter how many letters he has behind his name, that can give you an answer from the Bible because it's just not there. It's just not there. It's just too confusing and it's twisted. And you say, Lord, give grace, give mercy, give help. And you just trust God to lead in those individuals that are affected by that.
[00:07:05] So what we're going to do is we're going to start by looking at the way god originally set it up. All right, that's a good place to start because once we have the foundation and the basis set, then the later things where sin has entered in and it gets mucky and it gets difficult and bad things start happening, then we can understand. Okay? Now we understand why different things are said. The Lord says this and that and the other in the various places. Okay? Genesis, chapter two, verse number 15.
[00:07:36] Now remember, at chapter two there is no sin in the world.
[00:07:42] Sin has not entered the world. And so there is no death, there is no sorrow, there is only joy. There's only the way God made it. Originally. It was very good. Verse 15 and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
[00:08:02] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest, thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. Now pause here a second. Over and over you have the Lord say and the Lord God said and the Lord God took verse 15. And the Lord God took what right did he have to take a free we call a free moral agent? In other words, God made man different than the animals in that he had a like the Lord after whom he was after whose image he was made. He had certain characteristics in his personality, in his psyche, in his being that made him distinctive from the animals. And one of those things is he had volition, he had will.
[00:08:58] He could choose to love God or not love God. And of course we see that.
[00:09:03] But why did God take a being that he made and without asking his opinion put that being in certain circumstances and in the garden and didn't ask, is this where you want to be? Do you want this? Do you want that? He gave him a wife and didn't ask him if he wanted one.
[00:09:19] Now, this is going to matter.
[00:09:23] Here's the reality. Most people are like, Lord, please give me a wife, right?
[00:09:29] But here's the reality. God doesn't have to ask us for anything. He doesn't have to ask permission to do what he does with us. This is an important point because as we get further down in this chapter, the way God sets it up is not up to us.
[00:09:46] The way God originally established the order of the marriage is not my prerogative and it's not your prerogative.
[00:09:56] It's not society's prerogative, and it's definitely not the state's prerogative to tell us what are the roles of a husband and wife and what is permitted. And what is not permitted. God alone sets the rules nobody else. Nobody else.
[00:10:17] All right. Verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him.
[00:10:26] And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
[00:10:40] And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field.
[00:10:45] But for Adam there was not found and help meet for him.
[00:10:50] 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. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Now, the verse doesn't say it, but I'll read between lines and I think most of you would agree Adam was happy.
[00:11:21] Adam was pleased with what God had done.
[00:11:26] Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother. Now, this is important. Verse 24 and five are not part of the narrative. Verse 24 and five are God's inspired interpretation and application of the narrative. The narrative ends in verse 23. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. All right, let's go back up to verse number 18.
[00:12:02] The Lord says to start, he says after, remember, there is no sin. So you can't say that.
[00:12:11] In other words, the man had done something to cause this lack. He is perfect. He is sinless. And he says, God says, it is not good. Imagine that. God said God made all these things made all these different things on the various days of creation in chapter one. And he rests on chapter at the end of the 6th day, he looks at all the DM made, said, Behold, it is very good, over and over. That's a feature of the first two chapters of Genesis. He said it's very good. And then, verse 18, he looks at the man and said, it is not good that man should be alone.
[00:12:47] It is not good that man should be alone. So by that statement, God I mean, of course, God knew when he made man, he made all the animals and he made them. Listen, you heard about the chicken and the egg, right? Chicken and the egg. There was no egg. God didn't make an egg. God made a male and a female chicken. Right?
[00:13:09] Right. That's how it works. God made a male and female of the animals and he brought them to Adam. And Adam's naming Adam names. The animals. I don't know how all that know. Some people think know. Well, we'll call this a German shepherd and this will be an African elephant. Even though I don't know where Africa is yet. But anyway but anyway, he named the animals.
[00:13:33] So Adam no doubt saw male and female, male and female, male and female because that's how they were to reproduce by God's order.
[00:13:42] And here he was. There's a bug flying around here.
[00:13:45] And here he was alone.
[00:13:50] He's like the only creature on Earth that's alone. All the other creatures have a mate except Adam. He's alone and God says so. God, knowing that he made Adam it was God's plan all along to make a woman. It's not like he made Adam and then turned around and be like, oh, man, I knew I forgot something.
[00:14:13] No, listen, ladies. God did not forget the woman. It wasn't an afterthought.
[00:14:20] God knew all about the way that biology works and he knew all about the animals. And he knew that man needed a woman. But here's the thing. God did not god did not make a woman simply for procreation.
[00:14:37] That's part of it.
[00:14:41] There's another reason parallel to that that is important.
[00:14:46] It is not good that man should be alone. It was not God's intention that a man be alone.
[00:14:54] You see, without the woman, man lacked, even though God's creation was perfect without fault, without error whatsoever, without the woman God made. Imagine that God made something that after he was finished, lacked.
[00:15:13] Can the God do that? Yes. Genesis, chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth. What's the next verse say?
[00:15:20] And the earth was without form and void. God made something disordered that lapped. He can do that. And he did that here. He made a man and then rapture made him. And the man's, he's barely dry or whatever.
[00:15:38] And God says it's not good. It's not good. Without the woman man lacked because man god made man to be social. How do we know that? Because he said it is not good for man to be alone.
[00:15:52] The idea of being social is that we interact with others.
[00:15:57] One author said this. I thought this was good.
[00:16:02] Man is formed to be social, to hold converse not only with his superior, but also with his equal. So here you have God made Adam.
[00:16:12] God is obviously the superior. Adam is the inferior.
[00:16:20] But that was not good enough.
[00:16:23] God also wanted Adam to have a peer, one who was equal to him.
[00:16:30] Now, this is an important point because it makes a distinction between in the man and the woman. We got to remember that compared to God, in comparison to God, man is not equal. But when God made a woman, he made a woman equal to a man. Now, that is not speaking of roles that's speaking of nature.
[00:16:59] See, when God made Eve, he made someone the same as Adam, equal in his nature. They were the same.
[00:17:07] And so Adam had someone with whom he could fellowship together. Now we can fellowship with God. But God said it's not good that he's alone. He needs someone equal to him. Isn't that great? That's where you ladies and you men and the husbands and the wives, that's the kind of relationship that you have.
[00:17:30] So when we talk about the place of the woman and the place of the man, we're referring to vocation. We're referring to roles and duties and responsibilities, not to value, certainly not to value and not in one's nature. That's why this morning I read, I emphasized the man and men and women. Those women stood by themselves for their faith in that persecution.
[00:17:59] You ladies, I know this whole debate over complementarianism and all this stuff, you don't even need to know what that word means. If you don't know, it don't matter. It don't matter. We're just going to look at what the Bible says and move on. But the whole idea is that before the Lord, you and I, ladies and men, are both priests before God, both children equal before God.
[00:18:27] So let's keep on going here.
[00:18:33] Let's keep going. Verse 18. And the Lord God said it is not good that man, that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him.
[00:18:42] Now think about that.
[00:18:45] God designed a woman god designed a woman to be man's help.
[00:18:53] And that help was to be meet for him.
[00:18:58] Okay? So I want to make this point, but before I do again, we just want to remember that God said it was not good that man should be alone. God said that man needed an equal, man needed a partner. We could say man needed a companion. And in fact Malachi, chapter two, verse 14, calls a man's wife his companion. Companion.
[00:19:25] So how should a husband look at his wife? A husband should view his wife and value his wife as a companion.
[00:19:35] Someone who is there to fellowship with him as equals.
[00:19:40] That's what God intended. That's what God intended.
[00:19:45] And this fact means that man is made whole by the fact that he has a companion.
[00:19:59] This is what God says.
[00:20:01] She is specifically designed to make man whole.
[00:20:08] She is specifically designed by God to make man's existence in the world whole. Now we know this is a temporary, a temporal relationship. This doesn't persist after no matter what the Mormons say, this doesn't persist after we die. This is an on earth relationship. Remember, this is the way God intended it. Adam wouldn't have died physical death at all had it not been for sin entering into the world. But as we view know this was going to be temporary.
[00:20:38] But you know what God wants? God wanted the men of this world to have fellowship and companionship and he chose to give them a lady to do that. So, in short, the man and the woman need one another.
[00:20:58] Now listen, the man is lacking without the woman.
[00:21:06] He's lacking companionship that he needs.
[00:21:09] But at the same time, the woman will find her greatest fulfillment in being the help to her husband, in making him whole.
[00:21:17] They need each other. They're mutually dependent in order to fulfill their roles that God gave them.
[00:21:26] In fact, One Corinthians, chapter one, verse eleven. Listen to this one Corinthians, chapter eleven, verse eleven. I'm sorry, we'll look at some of these other verses later, perhaps, but I'll just pick out a couple. Nevertheless. One Corinthians 1111 says nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.
[00:21:53] You see, they're mutually dependent, mutually needed.
[00:21:57] See, this idea? And there is an idea of toxic masculinity. And if you talk to my wife, listen, if you want to ask my wife the way that our relationship is at home, you go right ahead, that's fine.
[00:22:10] But she'll tell you that I'm definitely what do they call it? Type whatever, I don't know what they call it.
[00:22:18] I'm definitely a strong leader in my family, okay, I'm definitely a strong leader, but that does not necessarily mean that that doesn't mean at all that I don't need my wife. That somehow there's this idea of toxic masculinity where man just walks around and pounding his chest, demanding that his family serve him. Actually, the reverse is what the Bible teaches, but that's the way people describe it. He just walks around and pounds his chest and he demands that, orders everybody around to do everything at his biding and all that kind of stuff. That is not what we find here. There are roles, I'll give you that. It's in the scripture, we'll look at them. But this is companionship.
[00:23:06] This is he needs her.
[00:23:10] And as I used to say, I wouldn't give a plug nickel to a man who won't say that he needs his wife because he's a big man. I don't need that woman. Whatever.
[00:23:22] You need her and she needs you.
[00:23:26] That's the way God intended it.
[00:23:28] I thought this was good. This is by Weirsby. The plain fact is that Adam needed Eve. Not a single animal God created could do for Adam what Eve could do.
[00:23:40] How could Adam fellowship with an animal?
[00:23:44] You can't I have a dog. Reina our dog. She's a great dog.
[00:23:50] I would not want my dog in place of my wife.
[00:23:55] She's a good dog.
[00:23:57] Go around and pet a little bit, whatever. But if I had to choose one and one other, I mean, obviously she was a helper meat or suitable for him. When God paraded the animals before Adam for him to name them, they doubtless came before him in pairs, each with his mate. And perhaps Adam wondered, why don't I have a mate?
[00:24:19] That's good so in verse number 18, notice what it says. God says, I will make him and help meet for him. There's two things I want you to see about this. He makes and help meet. The word help and meet has a little gap between the two words. That's called a space, which means it's not one word.
[00:24:43] I'm not trying to be condescending, but there is no such thing as a help meat.
[00:24:49] God made Eve to be Adam's help and that help was meat. Which means suitable, fit, and proper for him for his need. It was suitable, fit, and proper. So, number one, I want you to see that Eve was Adam's help. And number two I want you to see that Eve being the help of Adam was just exactly what the doctor ordered.
[00:25:18] So the first thing we see is that this is the woman's purpose.
[00:25:24] The woman's purpose is to help the man. That's what's first established in Genesis, chapter two. The purpose of the wife is to help her husband.
[00:25:35] That's her role.
[00:25:37] That's her role.
[00:25:41] Secondly, it shows that she is fit and proper for that purpose.
[00:25:46] And here's why that's important. That's why a husband should not devalue his wife because her purpose was to help you. How dare us?
[00:25:58] How dare we speak denigratingly to our wives? God gave them to us to help us. And not only that, he gave them to us to help us in a way that is just exactly what we needed. In other words, the puzzle piece fits just exactly the way our puzzle piece fits. It fits perfectly. So if we complain about that and I know sin gets in there and there's disagreement, whatever but if we complain about that, all things being right listen, our wife is just what God gave us, just what we need.
[00:26:31] That ought not be something we complain about or make light of or minimize, because it's not small. It's not small at all.
[00:26:40] She fully fulfills that purpose to man. He can be complete without her.
[00:26:46] I'm sorry? He can be complete with her. He can be complete with her. That's fantastic to think another person can add to your life in such a way. Not that you have an addition but there's part of you that lacks that needs her to make you whole.
[00:27:03] That's the value of a wife. It's no wonder Adam said this is bone of my bone and flesh. My flesh. She shall be called woman. This is my wife.
[00:27:18] Where's be another time he said this. She was made for him. She was made from him and for him, and he needed her.
[00:27:27] Therefore, they will always belong to each other and lovingly serve each other.
[00:27:33] That's good stuff. Now look down. Keep going down to verse number 21, rather. 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.
[00:27:53] And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. All right? So in the making of the first woman, God hear me now, literally took part of Adam's physical body.
[00:28:12] This is not figurative. This is literal. God literally took a physical part of Adam's body. And from that physical part, I don't know, maybe that maybe God took the DNA of Adam and made a woman using Adam's very own DNA. That's sort of like what happens with your children. Half your DNA comes from your mom, half your DNA comes from your dad. And a child is made with a mix of those two DNA, those two sets of DNA. Maybe God took Adam's DNA and in a similar way made Eve. But whatever the case might have been, whatever the case be is in a literal sense, god literally took part of Adam's bone and flesh to make her. She was quite literally made from Adam. Now, my wife was not made from me, okay? So this is a unique event in history, okay?
[00:29:03] This is why the scriptures say that the woman was made from man.
[00:29:09] But we also see in one Corinthians 1112 that the man was also by the woman.
[00:29:16] It's impossible for a man to come into being and to be born if it wasn't for a woman. So again, you see the same principle where they're mutually dependent, not just in the relationship, the marital relationship and their purposes and their roles, but you also see they're mutually dependent. As far as biology is concerned, you can't have a man without a woman and you can't have a woman without a man. It's just not possible.
[00:29:45] All of this listen, all of this. Sometimes when you get to the macho stuff going on and people look at a verse, you say, well, the woman was made from man. And that's the only verse in the Bible, right?
[00:29:57] But it's not the only verse in the Bible.
[00:29:59] In fact, you see both of them working together.
[00:30:06] So in very deed, Adam and his wife were one flesh. That's the key. That's what verse 23 is saying.
[00:30:14] Verse 22, adam, god took flesh from Adam, a bone from Adam. He made a woman. Adam said, Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She was taken out of man. In other words, she is actually my flesh.
[00:30:29] Okay?
[00:30:31] This is why it's important for us to understand then verse 23 is the end of the commentary or the end of the narrative. And then to verse 24 and five are the commentaries.
[00:30:40] Because in verse 24, we see that there is a unique relationship between Adam and his wife because of the fact that they are one flesh, their physical bodies are one with another. And this in a literal sense, of course, but in verse 24 it says therefore shall man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. You notice that word, cleave?
[00:31:06] You know what you ought to do if you're married? You ought to go to your wife or your husband, as the case may be, and you all just grab and hug them one time and just grab them and hug tight and hold on to them.
[00:31:20] You really all do that.
[00:31:23] I know cleave. I know all the theological whatevers about it. But what I'm saying is sometimes it's good just to grab your spouse and just grab them and hold them tight and say, you know what? I'm glad you're my partner. I'm glad you're my companion. I'm going to hold on to you.
[00:31:39] Right?
[00:31:41] Cleave. Physically cleave, he says, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. Now, again, this is commentary. Now here's what I want you to understand that the fact that part of Adam was made Eve is the basis is the basis of the intimate relationship between the husband and the wife. When you talk about marriage, divorce and remarriage, this is really where the crux is when you get into this particular part of the relationship. But the basis of the intimate relationship, which is a fleshly relationship. And by that I mean it's carnal. It's of the flesh, it's of the body. I don't mean that negatively for sure, but I mean it is of the physical body. The basis of that relationship is the fact that Adam's body was taken to make Eve literally. They were one flesh.
[00:32:34] And God uses that and extends it and extends it.
[00:32:41] Remember verse 24. It says, therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. Stop.
[00:32:50] Are there any fathers and mothers in Genesis, chapter two?
[00:32:55] Not a soul. There's one guy and one woman. How many kids? There are no fathers and mothers. That hasn't been made yet. All right? So that means that verse 24 refers to all the rest of humanity that have fathers and mothers.
[00:33:12] So this is a principle that God's extending.
[00:33:15] Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. That is a reference to the intimate relationship.
[00:33:27] So the intimate relationship is based upon that truth, that the man and his wife are one flesh. That is, in fact, what makes them that.
[00:33:45] But notice what I want you to see, verse 24 and they shall be one flesh.
[00:33:52] These people we're talking about, the generations after Adam and Eve, the ones that have mothers and fathers, I want you to follow me.
[00:33:59] When God took Adam and put him to sleep, took the rib, made a woman okay?
[00:34:04] By doing that process, he made them one flesh. They didn't get married like that.
[00:34:12] God did surgery and then you had. The woman and she was one flesh with Adam. God made them married, all right, but everyone after that that has fathers and mothers, like we read in Verse 24.
[00:34:25] When they get married, they also become one flesh like Adam and Eve were.
[00:34:30] But who judges adjoining?
[00:34:34] God does. Remember, my wife and I, we come from two different families. We have no DNA related, as far as that goes. We have no relationship in that way. We're not cousins or anything, as far I as don't know.
[00:34:48] But when we got married, God joined us.
[00:34:54] That's what Jesus says. We'll see it in just a minute.
[00:34:57] God is the one. They shall be one flesh. How does that happen? You have two different people with two different fleshes. How do they become one flesh? The answer God.
[00:35:09] God. This is an act of God.
[00:35:12] This is an act of God.
[00:35:17] Now all of this is seen. It's an act of God, okay? That means it's not an act of man.
[00:35:28] The preacher doesn't do it when you get married.
[00:35:31] The justice of the peace does not do it when you get married. When a man and a woman get married, God does the joining period. Listen, what I'm saying to you is the basis for everything else.
[00:35:46] If we don't understand this, we're going to misunderstand everything else.
[00:35:49] And all of this is seen in the second chapter of Genesis. It is absolutely foundational truth for human existence and human relationships. And all of society is built upon this. And we see this being whittled down the foundations of marriage and what marriage is being destroyed every day more and more and more and more. And you have all these different kinds of civil unions and you have same sex relationships and you have all this other stuff that is contrary, unnatural and contrary to God's order. And all the while, what is happening, society is coming apart at the seams.
[00:36:28] And because Adam and Eve are one flesh, they have a unique relationship that cannot and again, this is not just Adam and Eve. This is husbands and wives. This is a unique relationship that cannot simply be ended by some simple decree. That's what you have to understand.
[00:36:48] When God joins into one flesh, flesh the human bodies. That's what it's talking about. When God does this, joining, a man can't come back and say, okay, well, we'll just divide. No, you can't undo what God did.
[00:37:03] This is not like other kinds of relationships. These two, husband and wife, are integrated together physically so that God calls them one flesh. God does this. This is God's work. And this kind of relationship is unique and should and must be distinguished from other kinds of civil relationships such as friendships, relationships with your neighbors or your workplaces or business partnerships or customer client relationships or any other kind of relationship that we might have with all other relationships.
[00:37:37] Those relationships can be parted by a simple verbal agreement. Occasionally, if there's a legal aspect to it, there must be a legal parting and that's it.
[00:37:49] Not so with a marriage.
[00:37:52] God does adjoining, and no man has power to change that. Now, we know that man thinks they have power to change it, but man does not.
[00:38:05] Man does not.
[00:38:12] All right, let's look at Matthew 19 and we'll be finished.
[00:38:17] Actually, there's one more after Matthew 19. That is, I want I want to make sure I read Matthew 19. Verse number three says this 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? Now we're getting to the subject of divorce.
[00:38:45] We're not going to talk about what the Pharisees are asking right now, okay, we'll cover this later. Got to lay the foundations first. But that's what they're asking. Is it lawful to put away a man put away a man put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female? There's, listen, that one verse. That one verse totally implodes transgenderism. That is the final authority on the matter, period.
[00:39:19] No psychologist, no government official, no one, no matter what their history, academic or otherwise, nobody has power to alter what God said here.
[00:39:35] Well, Jesus just didn't understand.
[00:39:38] Yes, he did.
[00:39:40] Okay, listen, the issue of transgenderism is really a question of authority.
[00:39:49] And you'll notice when these things are brought up and you push back and you say, well, I don't really well, I've studied this and I have a degree in gender studies. And I have a doctorate in gender studies. And the experts have concluded the experts unanimously agree.
[00:40:09] There's a consensus on it's in the manual that psychologists use whatever no authority can overrule what God says, period.
[00:40:23] And listen, it's okay to stand there.
[00:40:26] That's okay. You don't have to have all the answers to all the other things. All you got to know is, this is what God said, verse five, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. We just read that. Genesis 224. So Jesus is quoting it, verse six.
[00:40:48] Now what Jesus does in verse six is he further explains Genesis 224.
[00:40:56] And then he applies it. Listen what he says. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. This is why marriage is to be for life, because the husband and the wife are no longer two, they are one.
[00:41:20] And God did it, and no man has power to change it.
[00:41:25] What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. We'll learn later that man has no power to put it asunder.
[00:41:36] And then they go and say, well, why did Moses give us the writing of divorce?
[00:41:42] But here's what I want you to see.
[00:41:44] He says that they're no longer two. And he says that current marriages, those who are married now, god has joined the husband and wife together, not man, which is what I just said. So again, this is the key principle on the subject of marriage and divorce and remarriage. You have to understand that from the beginning, God is the joiner and that it is a physical joining, a physical relationship.
[00:42:18] That relationship cannot be willy nilly altered like other relationships. It is unique.
[00:42:26] This is the foundational principle to understand divorce and remarriage. Civil authorities are not the joiners of marriage. God is alone the sole joiner of marriage. And if he is the joiner, and he is, then it is only by his laws that this bond can be dissolved. Period.
[00:42:48] Only by his laws. If there is any time at which two people that were married are no longer married, it will only be because the one who gave the law also puts it in his law the circumstances under which that is possible.
[00:43:07] This is the primary principle for the subject of marriage, divorce and remarriage.
[00:43:13] The one other verse I want to read. So let's go to Hebrews real quick, chapter 13, because I love this verse, and I feel like we need to end on a good note.
[00:43:34] This world likes to act like marriage is good, but when you talk to people behind closed doors, there's a lot of reasons they have to complain about the relationships they have, their marriage relationships, and there's a lot of reasons to complain. I mean, there's a lot of bad wives. There's a lot of bad husbands, right? I mean, that is the thing. Again, sin is mucky and it makes things mucky.
[00:44:00] But the Bible still says in verse four of Hebrews 13, marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but hormongers and adulterers. God will judge.
[00:44:18] In other words, marriage is good.
[00:44:21] It's a good thing, and it should be looked upon with honor and with reverence.
[00:44:29] It is a unique relationship unlike any other, and it should be given the highest listen. The highest value. The highest value. You have God, you have your husband or your wife and your children, and then you have the Church. It should be given in the highest value under the Lord.
[00:44:51] Amen.
[00:44:53] Amen. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. Can I get an amen from those that are married? All right, let's pray.
