Order In The Church (Part 2)

that grace opens up of reconciliation of Malachi. For the Lord the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away Malachi 2:16. That word there putting away is shalak. It means divorce. For one coverth violence with his garments, sayaeth the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously. God himself said, "I hate divorce."

Is there then within the law some contradiction? Because this is a this is a charge that academics level against the Bible. Deuteronomy 24:es 1 and 2 say this. When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. Watch this. And when she's departed out of his house, she may go and be married. She may go and be another man's wife. Wait a minute. What's going on here? God says, listen, regardless of what concessions the law makes, God says, "I hate this. I hate it. I hate divorce." And and so there were times when Israel was specifically commanded to divorce their wives and send them away, right? Somebody give me a good old Baptist nod or something. There were times when Israel, the children of Israel were specifically commanded to divorce those strange wives and send them away in the in Ezra and Nehemiah's time. and and in this case it was a repercussion from the sin that they had committed in the first place by marrying strange wives. It's a big mistake.

I should be talking to young people today. It's a big mistake to marry with the expectation of conversion that you're going to convert somebody. Big mistake. I had a trainee out in Arizona, young lady by the name of I'm not going to tell you her name. Anyway, she was a Jewish young lady and we've had conversations before and and she told me this. She said, "I will not even date a person who is not Jewish." I said, "Why not?" She said, "Because the possibility is that I will fall in love with that person and I am not even going to take the chance of marrying outside of Judaism. Woo. We could save ourselves a lot of headaches if that was a priority of getting married not being unequally yolked together with unbelievers. He didn't say don't marry a drunk and don't marry an alcoholic or don't marry a a drug addict. Any of those. He said don't be unequally yolked together with people who don't believe the same thing that you believe. Amen. Brother Carden, preach it.

This clause that was in the law is explained by Jesus. He saith unto them, here's a reason. Here's a reason it's in the law. Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, he allowed you to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. So while divorcement was contained in the law, it was not a pro principle that was given by God in his own law from the beginning. And so I'm going to rush on here through this.

Grace has provided an entirely set of conditions that are not contained in the law. grace. You and I have been recipients of the grace of God. And so what happened under the law, if if a if a husband or a wife was guilty of adultery, the man was going to be freed because the penalty was death. That's the only way that this contract is broken. But under grace, we have a different set of conditions given. And the Lord spoke to Jeremiah through Jeremiah 31:33. And he said this, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, sayeth the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people." And that's where we are today. We live under the grace of God, not under the severity of the law. We have grace. And so he goes on and addresses the widows, the widowers, and the unmarried.

A summary statement is given in verse 39 regarding the permanency of marriage. The 1 Corinthians 7:39 says, "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. This was a reference to the law. To the law. Listen, we have found out that it Paul addressed this. If the unbeliever departs and he and they break that bond, the woman, the man is free. Hello. You can't control what another person does. I don't care if it's your husband or your wife. And sometimes this happens. They walk away and they break that bond. And he said, "You're not under bondage in such situations as this." But as long as two believers, this condition should never exist when two people claim to be believers. There's always the potential for reconciliation.

And so he goes on to address the the widows, the widowers, the unmarried. He commends the single life. In verse eight, he says, "Not that it's better, but that it's good to follow his example." Noting that both Jesus and Paul, let me just say this, they both reiterated the fact that this is a gift. Singleness, being alone is a gift that not everybody receives. Jesus said in Matthew 19, his disciples say unto him, "If this if the case of the man be so with his wife, it's not good to marry." But he said unto them, "All men cannot receive this, saying, save they to whom it is given." Paul says, "I wish that everybody was as myself, but every man hath his proper gift." So being single, listen to me, being single is not a curse. It could be a calling. It could be a gift that God has put into your life. And he goes on to to uh enumerate the reasons for singleness being an advantage. It's not a curse. It's calling sometimes.

In closing arguments, Paul says this relating to his authority. verse 40 of this same chapter, he it's kind of a dig. It's kind of a barb that he throws out there and I think also that I have the spirit of God. He says I the reason I can say these things is I seem to have the spirit of God, right? I I can talk about he never simply gave an opinion. He was guided by the spirit of God under the inspiration and the opices of the Holy Ghost.

Listen to me. Let's stand together. I'm closing with this. But we must never allow emotions, culture, empathy, what's legal to be the determiners of what we do in the context of the church. None of those things matter. What really matters in the foundation of the church is what does the word of God say? I could care less if things are legal or illegal. If it violates the word of God, it's wrong. That's it. Final statement. It's the word of God that transcends every man's law, man's culture. Listen, don't bring your culture into the church. There's not not Jew, there's not Greek, there's not male, there's not female, there's not bond, there's not free. There's only one culture that we follow after, and that's the culture of the kingdom of God. And we are we are bound by the word of God in all matters. God bless you. Take a break. I know I need one.