Welcome everyone. We have a wonderful crowd here
today and we're so thankful we have visitors that are among us,
and we want you to know that you are our honored guest and we
welcome you back every time that we have an opportunity to
assemble and worship God in spirit and in truth.
As always is the case, I do consider it a privilege to speak
concerning the Word of God. And I will say this, it's even a
greater privilege to speak words that Jesus preached so long ago.
We're continuing our series on the greatest sermon ever
preached. It's called the Sermon on the
Mount, found in Matthew 5-6 and seven.
And you might remember the last time that I taught you.
Remember that Jesus said, you have heard that it had been
said, you shall not commit adultery.
But Jesus says, but I say to you that whoever looks upon a woman
to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart.
We talked about what that means in great detail last time.
We'll not touch on any of that this morning.
When Jesus finished those words, though, is the next two verses
and he talks about marriage. And I want to tell you where I
got the phrase or I got the title, Marriage is sacred and
binding. I just got it from my Bible
right above these two verses. As the Bible was being printed.
Somebody wrote marriage is binding and marriage is sacred.
So I just put that on as the title.
That's where I got it. Let me say something about
marriage, please. Marriage is the most primary of
all relationships. And I have to tell you, if you
have a good marriage, there's nothing in the world that's
better. And perhaps if you have a bad
marriage, there's nothing in the world that's worse.
I get that. I will say this too.
It's all about who you choose. And that's not the topic we're
going to consider today. But you got to choose the right
one. Your happiness depends on
choosing the right one. The marriage relationship is the
greatest relationship in all the world.
When I think about that, I think about this, that God has
ordained the marriage relationship meaning this.
That somebody that knows me, every bit of me, with all my
weaknesses, still loves me enough to want to be with me no
matter what. That's great stuff.
What did Jesus say about this great subject a long time ago?
First of all, I'm going to say this about marriage.
A lot of times in the world, people don't view it as sacred
or binding. In fact, did you know I looked
at this up this morning? These are the latest statistics
as of 2022 in the United States of America in 2020, two, 50% of
all marriages end in divorce. That's first marriages In the
United States of America, 60% of all second marriages end in
divorce. You see a trend and 75% of all
third marriages end in divorce in the United States of America.
Marriage though is sacred and binding.
What did Jesus say in Matthew chapter 5?
Jesus says. Furthermore, it has been said
whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce. But I say to you that whoever
divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality or
adultery causes her to commit adultery.
And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.
I have to say this before we go any further, please.
You're going to hear me use words like this old law, old
covenant, and you're going to hear me use words like new law
and new covenant. And this is what I'm talking
about when I say old law. I'm talking about the old law of
Moses and the old law of Moses existing before Jesus.
And when I talk about the new covenant, I'm talking about that
which is an establishment after Jesus died, after he was buried,
after he rose again the third day, ascended to his Father, and
after the church was established in Acts chapter 2.
OK, So when I say old covenant or old law, I'm talking about
the old law of Moses before Jesus, before the church.
When I say new law, I'm talking about that which applies to
Christians in the church age that began in Acts 2 and it
exists even today. OK, that being said, Jesus
refers to the old part in the first part of this passage.
It's on here in verse 31 he said.
Furthermore, it has been said whoever divorces his wife let
him give her a certificate of divorce.
So in verse 31, it's basically a summary of what all the Mosaic
system legislated regarding divorce.
And what Jesus is doing is he's referring back to Deuteronomy in
the Old Testament chapter 24, beginning with verse one as its
basis. Notice when a man takes a wife
and marries her and it happens that she finds no favor in his
eyes because of some uncleanness in her.
Please hold that phrase uncleanness because we're going
to get back to what that means. Many people misunderstand that
this is going back to the old law of Moses, OK, because he's
found some uncleanness in her and he writes her a certificate
of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house
when she has departed from his house and goes and becomes
another man's wife. If the latter husband detests
her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand
and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies
who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced
her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been
defiled. For that is an abomination
before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin on
the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
OK, remember, before we go any further, regardless of what
happened under the law of Moses, and we're going to get specific
about that, regardless of what happened, God hates divorce.
He hates it. It's always been that way.
We know these very beautiful passages.
I'm going to be very brief about the passage, but I want to make
a point that maybe we don't always make.
In the book of Genesis, when God created everything and He
created man. God looks down upon man in his
loneliness. What does he say?
It's not good for a man to be alone.
I'm going to give him a helper. We know the story.
I use this passage every time I marry someone, perform a
marriage ceremony. Absolutely, we all do.
Anyone that does that, He causes a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.
He took a rib from his side and made the woman.
He brought the woman to the man. Remember what he said.
You remember what the man said, he looked upon her and he said
she is now bone of my bones, she is flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of
man. Then he said therefore shall a
man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined into
his wife, and they shall become or be one flesh.
OK, here's the point I want to make.
If you ever stop to consider the gift that God just gave to man,
the gift. It's not good for a man to be
lonely. It's not good for a man to be
alone. I wouldn't want to be that.
It's the greatest relationship in all the world.
And I'm going to tell you this, the marriage relationship is the
greatest relationship in all the world except for your
relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the only one greater.
That's it. And God gave you that as a gift.
He gave you a helper for life. He gave it for life.
But God hates divorce. How do I know that?
I didn't just speculate. The Bible says that Malachi 216
for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, for it
covers 1's garment with violence, says the Lord of
hosts. Therefore, take heed to your
spirit that you do not deal treacherously, OK?
In addition, did you know that God never authorized divorce
even under Mosaic Law? He didn't authorize it, but
because of Israel's heart being hardened, He regulated it.
How did He regulate it? He regulated it with a
certificate of divorce. I did a little research.
Historically, by the way, people were getting divorces for
everything, anything and everything.
I don't like you anymore. That's it.
Al, you bother me. I'm really glad you can't get a
divorce or leaving your clothes laying around.
I might have been kicked out a long time ago.
People were divorcing their spouse for ridiculous reasons.
It was never to be that. It was always to be man and
woman. And yes, one man married to one
woman and that was for life. That's always the way it was
supposed to be. But because of Israel's hardened
heart, God regulated it with a certificate of divorce.
You had to have your paperwork. And This is why there were two
reasons. Please consider the following.
Again, this is under the old Law of Moses.
It protected the woman from being sent away by an angry and
impulsive husband, number one. Number two, you had to have a
certificate of divorce because it prohibited the marriage of a
divorced woman to her first husband after she had been
defiled by the second marriage. In other words, a husband needed
to think twice. Do I really want to divorce my
wife? Because if I do and she marries
another, I can't take her back under the old law of Moses.
So it was regulated by certificate of divorce.
Here's another passage that supports what I just said.
Jeremiah 3 and verse one. They say if a man divorces his
wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, may he
return to her again, would not that land be greatly polluted?
So to understand the meaning of Matthew 5 and 31 and what Jesus
is about to say in Matthew 5 and 32, we have to notice the
following please Mosaic law, please get this did not allow
divorce for the cause of fornication.
Remember when I said in Deuteronomy 24 and verse one
that that phrase uncleanness, we're going to get to what it
means. I'll make the statement 1st and
I'm going to prove it to you, OK?
Under the old law of Moses, divorce was not allowed for the
cause of sexual immorality or the cause of fornication or
adultery. It was not.
So what do we mean? What we mean is if that's true,
then Deuteronomy chapter 24 and verse one, that phrase some
uncleanness is not referring to fornication.
It's not referring to adultery. Now what did Mosaic law address
or what did Mosaic law say about fornication?
There were actually 5 situations in the Scriptures regarding
fornication, but not one of these allows for a divorce.
I'm going to notice 5 things with you here.
They are #1 premarital impurity between a man and unmarried man
and an unmarried, unengaged woman results in marriage or a
fine, but not divorce, as the Bible says.
He may not put her away all his days.
Those passages are Deuteronomy 22 verses 28 to 29 and Exodus
chapter 22 verses 16 and 17. That's number one.
Here's another one. Premarital unchastity between a
man and an engaged woman not engaged to him.
Get this? This is pretty rough.
Results in a death sentence for the man under the old law.
The woman's fate is dependent upon the location and
circumstances surrounding impropriety.
Deuteronomy 22, verses 23 through 27.
Here's #3 the post Marital discovery of a wife's premarital
unchastity resulted in the death penalty for the wife.
Deuteronomy 2213 through 21. Don't you?
Aren't you glad you don't live under the Law of Moses?
Adultery between a man and a woman not married to each other
results in the death of both Deuteronomy 22 and 22.
How about one more? Suspicion of adultery resulted
in the priestly administration of a divine bitter water test.
If found guilty, the woman suffers a slow and shameful
death from the Lord. Numbers 511 through 31.
Now I'm going to tell you something.
If you want to know about this bitter water test, read numbers
five 11231. Please don't do it now, then I
won't have your attention. It's very long reading.
But if you want to know what that bitter water test read that
after services. 5 situations of fornication.
In all 5 cases just mentioned, divorce is not an option even
though sexual immorality had occurred.
What resulted in those cases? Here they are, marriage,
monetary fines, or death, but not divorce under the law of
Moses. And why is that significant?
I'll tell you why that's significant.
Have you ever heard of the position no exception?
Sometimes people have a no exception position.
Now, by the way, Jesus is going to give an exception, but there
are those that believe in a no exception position.
It means that there's no exception.
There's never a case when you can be divorced and remarried.
Jesus is going to give the exception.
People that believe in that concept or that position say
that the only thing Jesus was doing is in Matthew 532.
He was reiterating what was legislated under the old law.
Not so fast, because under the old law, fornication was not a
cause for adultery. That's not the case.
Fornication never resulted in divorce under the Mosaic Law.
It resulted in marriage, monetary fines, or death, but
not divorce. OK, saying all that, this is
what Jesus says he says. But I say to you, So in other
words, he says, you've heard that it was said before this.
But now I say to you, you know what he was doing?
He was giving new authoritative law, just like he's done
throughout the Sermon on the Mount so far.
When he said, when he reached back and he said, you've heard
that he'd been said, you shall not kill.
But I say to you, if you're angry with your brother without
a 'cause you've committed murder in your heart, see the point?
You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if you
lust after a woman, you've committed it in your heart
already. Here's new authoritative law
regarding the marriage relationship, about marriage and
divorce, and it exists for the church today.
Then he says this, that whoever, and sometimes this phrase is
very much misunderstood and there's much confusion.
What does the word whoever mean? It's caused confusion among
Bible students and so forth. But here's the question.
Is this word a universal word? Some people believe that it is
meaning anyone, period. Here's my question.
Is this word whoever referring to everybody, even non
Christians? Does the laws that Jesus was
speaking here, does it refer to non Christians and marriages
that non Christians may have before they ever become a
Christian? The answer to that is no.
The word whoever is exclusive to what he's talking about.
Jesus was living under the law of Moses still because he had
not died, He was not buried, he had not raised from the dead, He
did not ascend to his father, and the church was not
established yet in Acts chapter 2.
So Jesus, when he preached the great Sermon on the Mount was
preaching New Kingdom law, living under Old Kingdom times
or the Old Testament times. He was saying that whoever.
In other words, this is referring to Christians, this is
referring to church members in the future.
Jesus never dealt, by the way, with a marriage relationship in
the New Testament that wasn't Christian, Christian.
Now Paul did and 1st Corinthians Chapter 7 and that's a sermon
for another time. When Paul dealt with A2 people
and I think the context is they were both non Christians.
They got married and then one obeyed the gospel and the Bible
says that the marriage is sanctified by the believer and
so forth. And Paul gave some rules for
that. And that's another sermon.
Jesus was saying Christians here.
So whoever means Christians, members of the church baptized,
believers baptized into Jesus Christ, church members today.
OK. Notice this of why it doesn't
apply to people before they are baptized or before they're
Christians. As one scholar said.
If Jesus teaching applies universally and would not
include and would include non Christians as some believe, then
a Sinner or a non Christian who is previously divorced and
remarried for other than the specific cause of fornication is
duty bound to separate from his current spouse before he could
become a Christian. But nowhere in the New Testament
is such an action required or even implied now.
Simply put, Jesus was referring to Christians and this is what
he says regarding divorce. Whoever divorces his wife except
or for any reason except sexual immorality.
And then it goes on further. But the exception of our Lord's
instruction is here. But it doesn't diminish the rule
or the force of the rule. Remember when I said God hates
divorce? OK, It doesn't diminish the
force of the rule. It just shows under what
conditions that rule may be amended.
Let's notice what the rule is. Here's the rule in Mark chapter
10, verses 11:00 and 12:00. So we said to them, whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against
her. And if a woman divorces her
husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
That is the rule. So Matthew 532 is the exception
to the rule. And I want to say something
about the state of California. I know California gets slammed
pretty hard, especially from people of other States and even
people in our state slamming California.
And I'm just going to be realistic with you.
And to you at this time, first of all, I want to be honest.
I love living in California. And I'm to be honest with you, I
wouldn't live anywhere else. My life is here, my work is
here, everything's here, my family's here.
So I enjoy and I love living in California.
Do I love everything about California?
No. Do I love liberal views and
liberal ideas in all aspects of California?
No. Do I love all the liberal laws
that exist in the state of California?
No. But I do love living in the
state of California. OK, all that being said, if you
want to get a divorce in the state of California, you can
only get a divorce for one real reason, under the umbrella of
irreconcilable differences. You cannot legally in the state
of California get a divorce for adultery as that cause.
They don't care. They just consider it whatever
whatever reason you call it. It's called irreconcilable
differences, and you can get a divorce for whatever reason if
it falls into the category of irreconcilable differences,
whatever that is. OK, I thought that's the way
that it was in all of the United States and all the other states,
too. But the other, well, a couple
months ago, I was holding the meeting in another state and I
heard of a case where somebody left a man, she left her
husband, and she wanted to get a divorce.
There was no adultery. She had no scriptural grounds.
They were just people taking it to the law.
And they went to the law and they went to a judge and they
tried to get, she wanted to get a divorce because she just
wanted to leave her husband. You know what they said?
It's illegal to divorce your spouse except for adultery.
I'm glad there's at least some states out there that want to
stick to the Bible. Jesus says there's one exception
in that sexual immorality. That is adultery for divorce.
Our state says whatever irreconcilable differences.
But notice what else Jesus says. What happens when you divorce
your wife for any reason except for sexual immorality?
Notice what Jesus said. Not me.
Jesus says you caused her to commit adultery.
If a man dismisses or divorces his spouse for reasons other
than sexual immorality, he makes her commit adultery.
Now, why is that? Here's the idea, by the way, if
the husband, and we'll get to why the husband's being
addressed so much here, but if the husband initiates an
unscriptural divorce from his wife, in other words, she's
innocent. She didn't cheat on him, she
didn't commit adultery and he wants to divorce her.
He is aiding in her immorality. Jesus says he's causing her to
commit adultery. Why is that?
Very startling words. The assumption is this because a
divorced woman will probably remarry and if she had an
unscriptural divorce, she had no right to remarry.
Please stay with me. It's going to get simple, I
promise. The idea is referring back to
maybe a culture that doesn't apply so much today about the
need to remarry. I know that in our cultures, we
have women that are educated, great.
We have women that are independent, able to take care
of themselves. So if a spouse of a husband left
a woman today, she wouldn't necessarily have to be married
to another man to be taken care of because she can take care of
herself. So maybe culturally, that
culturally may not apply that example so much today.
Back then, oh, it applied ancient Jewish cultures, women
didn't work. The man provided, the man went
out and worked. The man had whatever career, the
man had the job, the man provided and the woman was at
home. So if a man divorced a woman
unscripturally in those ancient societies, she would be all
alone, destitute, all alone, needing help and assistance.
She would actually have to be compelled to marry another man
to take care of her. What Jesus says is if he she has
been divorced for any other reason except sexual immorality,
you've just caused her to commit adultery because she'll marry
another man, be forced to remarry.
Here's some other things that might apply today, and don't
underestimate this one. How about loneliness?
I'll tell you what, loneliness is rough.
I'm fortunate I'm not lonely at all.
But I know people that are really lonely because they're
all by themself, and sometimes maybe we should be more
considerate of the feelings of others that are lonely and maybe
do more to come to their aid and support when they're lonely.
Loneliness might cause somebody to get remarried.
What else? Even today, How about
unfulfilled natural desire? You got to throw that in.
That's true. How about this, How about a
negative or trying to avoid a negative social stigma?
Now, it's not that big of a deal today, but there was a time and
some of you older folks, and I just say maybe a little more
seasoned than I am. You're older than 57.
That's my age. I'll just say it that way more
seasoned. Maybe you lived in a time like
maybe in the 50s when divorce came with a tremendous stigma.
Remember the phrase of the word divorcee?
There was a time when that phrase divorcee had a real
stigma to it. So maybe someone today might
want to be remarried because avoiding the social stigma of
being divorced. JW Mcgarvey said this.
A woman, when divorced by her husband, naturally seeks a
second marriage, if for no other reason than to vindicate herself
from being the imputation cast on from the imputation cast on
her by the divorce. So Jesus places the weight of
this teaching squarely on the man's shoulders because the man
has the role of or the responsibility of being the
family caretaker. But I will tell you this, though
I have to add this The rules apply to men and women both.
The divorce and remarriage rule and law of the New Testament
applies to men and women too, both.
The weight of the teaching now is falling culturally,
especially on the man, because he's the caretaker.
It's his responsibility He is to provide both physically and
emotionally by nourishing and cherishing his wife.
Ephesians 529 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but
nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
That's the husband's role, and to do otherwise violates God's
plan. I have to do it.
If you think that your marriage is difficult and you have to
work at it and maybe you're not happy, So what?
So what? Work it out and because you have
to work with your marriage and work with your spouse and your
relationship, it doesn't mean your relationship is bad.
Anybody that says I've never had to work something out with my
you're lying or something's wrong with you because that's
just part of it. Now, there is a reason there is
an exception, but I'm just talking about getting along.
I'm talking about working stuff out.
I'm talking about that I'm going to get to some other things
later. So hold, hold that thought.
I'll get back to you if I know what you're going through your
mind right now. I'll get back to some of the
things you're thinking about. Let's just continue on our our
flow here causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a
woman who is divorced commits adultery.
The Lord's legislation, as one scholar said, if followed,
eliminates the immorality that results from an unscriptural
divorce. And when this the law is
rejected, all parties become entangled with guilt.
Please notice the following. Notice what happens in an
unscriptural divorce. Here's what happens #1 The
husband, because of an unscriptural divorce when he
marries, commits adultery. That's number one.
Number two, the second wife commits adultery because he's
ineligible to marry her #3 the first wife becomes a fornicator
when she marries another Romans 7 and two.
Number four, and her new husband is guilty too because he married
her. Wow.
What's the Lord saying here? What the Lord is saying here is
all four people are now involved in the sin, all because a man or
a woman unscripturally divorced his or her spouse.
Here's my point, folks. The impact of the Lord's
teaching is this, that one who does not have the right to
divorce does not have the right to remarry.
And again, we're talking about Christians in the Kingdom,
church members. We're not talking about
unbelievers. We're not talking about people
that have never been baptized by their mission of their sins.
We're talking about Christians. So any attempt to justify an
unscriptural divorce and subsequent remarriage is futile.
So remember this, God's plan for marriage has always been the
same. It's one man married to one
woman and that's for life. That's number one.
Number two, even under the law of Moses, remember God tolerated
divorce, but that was never His plan or His desire.
Matthew 19 and verse 8 says this.
He said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart,
permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it
was not so. He gave the rule of marriage
that we've already established in Mark chapter 10, verses 11:00
and 12:00. So we said to them, whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against
her. And if a woman divorces her
husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
That's the rule. Here's the exception, except for
sexual immorality. What am I saying, folks?
I'm saying this under the Law of Moses, adultery was not a cause
for divorce. There were other things we read
about what they were bad stuff, right?
Fornication brought marriage, fines and death.
What Jesus is saying is this, but I'm saying to you, if your
spouse cheats on you, commits adultery, you have a choice.
If you so choose, you can divorce that spouse for the
cause of adultery, and yes, you can be married to another.
That's the exception. That's the exception.
There's no other exception but that if that spouse decides I
don't want to divorce my spouse, I want to forgive my spouse, can
they do that? Absolutely.
Take them back? You bet, but it's up to the
innocent party or the one that was affected in it to make that
choice. They have the choice.
What Jesus was saying is I'm saying you to you.
This under new authoritative law under the Kingdom, when the
church is established, you got Christians that are married,
right? Two Christians don't get a
divorce. It's unscriptural except for the
cause of sexual immorality, fornication, which is adultery.
This is not the only time that Jesus mentioned this in Matthew
chapter 5. He also mentioned it in Matthew
chapter 19. That's the exception.
Again, except for sexual immorality.
Remember this as I draw my remarks to a close.
There's only two things that separate marriage in God's eyes.
Only two things. I don't care about
irreconcilable differences. I don't care about the courts.
When it comes to two Christians like Jesus was talking about,
there's only two things that separate marriage in God's eyes.
One is death. If your spouse dies, you are no
longer married. And by the way, Jesus even dealt
with that when the Sadducees questioned him.
There's no marriage in heaven. There's no marriage in heaven.
We're going to be like the angels of God in heaven.
No marriage, not going to be marriage or given marriage in
heaven. There's no marriage.
We're spiritual beings in heaven.
We're going to know each other, I think, as we were known.
But there's no marriage. OK.
So death separates marriage. That's number one.
So if your spouse has died, you're no longer bound to that
marriage law because your spouse is gone and it severs the tie,
right? You're not married anymore.
What's the other thing? Sexual immorality.
Fornication. King James calls it adultery.
That's the only other thing that separates that in God's eyes.
Maybe you were thinking when I was talking about this.
Wait a minute. I've been married to a creep.
Do I have to stay with him? I'm a Christian for, for
example, I'm I was married to an abusive man.
He was horribly abusive to me. Do I have to stay with him?
No, you don't. But there's only one scriptural
ground for scriptural divorce and that is sexual immorality.
You don't have to stay there, separate and get out of there,
but it doesn't give you the right to divorce that horrible
person and marry somebody else. Only one exception in Roman in
in first Corinthians Chapter 7. I told you when Paul dealt with
the relationship 2 non Christians 1 obeys the gospel.
So now what? You have a Christian married to
a non Christian and as I said, it is sanctified in the eyes of
God by the believer. So God recognizes that marriage
in his eyes, right? OK, what happens when the
unbeliever wants to depart? Paul says let him depart.
You're not under bondage in such cases.
What does that mean? Some people believe that means,
oh, you're not under bondage means you can just go get
married to anybody else. Under bondage means you're not
under bondage of fulfilling your marital responsibility to that
spouse and making it work. Let him go.
But then what did Paul say? Here's your choice.
Remain unmarried Christian, Christian spouse or be
reconciled back to your spouse again, because there's only one
exception, folks, and that's sexual immorality.
If they do that, you can divorce them for that cause and you can
be married to another scripturally.
In conclusion, let me just say this, if you're contemplating
marriage, it's a serious matter. So don't enter into it lightly.
Don't you better make sure and make sure that the person that
you are going to marry or you want to marry is on the same
page that you are spiritually, where God is first and foremost
in your life. I'm going to tell you something,
a marriage that is based on that.
You can take anything that comes your way, man.
You can do it. You can handle it and even when
the hardest things in life come your way, it won't pull you
apart because you got God is number one and God is the focus
and the center of your life and your marriage is what it should
be because of it, man, you handle anything.
Choose the right one, get the right one.
Number two, don't enter into it lightly and understand this
marriage is for life. I'm finished.
Thank you for your kind listening.
These were the words of Jesus. I hope that something was said
that was edifying to you and explaining these passages that
Jesus spoke so long ago. If you have any questions about
what I have said in any way, please talk to me after
services. I'll do my very best to answer
any questions or clarifications that you might have.
But now we've come to the time when we extend an invitation.
We never preached from God's Word without extending an
invitation. Do you remember when I said that
the rules that Jesus was referring to refer to
Christians? This is what you have to do to
become a Christian here. It's very simple, and I know a
lot of people have different ideas, but this is what you have
to do to become a Christian. You got to hear the Word of God.
Romans 10/17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. That's what generates faith is
the word of God #2 what do you got to do?
You got to make a choice. You got to believe with all your
heart. Hebrews 11:00 and 6:00 But
without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him. What else Jesus says?
I got to change my life. I got to repent of my sins.
Acts 17 and 30. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
What else I need to be able to make the greatest confession,
say the greatest words ever stated, and confess that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Acts 837 And Philip said, if you
believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Upon taking these steps, you are
now a fit candidate to contact the blood of Jesus.
And this is what washes your sins away.
It's the only thing that'll take your sins away.
You can't hear it away, believe it away, repent it away, or
confess it away. If you want your sins to be
washed away, you got to do this. Be baptized for the remission of
your sins. Mark 1616.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned. If you've never taken those
steps of obedience and you would like to, we, we are standing
ready to assist you. We would love to help you in
that. Maybe you have taken those steps
of obedience. Maybe there's something in your
life that's not what it should be.
Maybe you're a child of God and you've drifted away and it's
time to come back. If you want to be the class,
come forward while we stand and while we sing.