In the sermon titled 'One Flesh,' Douglas Campbell delves into Genesis 2:18-24 to explore the divine purpose of marriage. He emphasizes that God created marriage to address man's need for companionship, highlighting that man is incomplete alone. The sermon underscores the complementary roles of men and women, pointing out differences such as men's physical strength and women's emotional intelligence in nurturing children. Campbell challenges cultural norms that devalue the family and promote independence at age 18, advocating for a biblical view that prioritizes family unity. He warns against society's elevation of pets over children and the normalization of divorce, stressing that marriage is a testament to the relationship between Christ and the church. The sermon criticizes the secular world's attempts to undermine family structures and entangle individuals in sexual sin. Campbell calls for believers to adhere to Scripture, resist cultural pressures, and foster godly offspring. He concludes with a reminder of God's unwavering commitment to His people, encouraging Christians to reflect this divine relationship in their marriages.

Genesis chapter 2. This morning I'll be reading from verses 18 through 20. Some of you that are paying close attention to things that maybe put you into a little bit of a shock, you probably thought we were starting the book of Revelation this morning, and Lord willing we'll start that next week. This morning I'd like to look at Genesis chapter 2 as it's been on my heart in the past couple of weeks before we before we jump into the book of Revelation. Let's let's take just a quick look at this text Genesis 2 18 through 24 Then the Lord God said It is not good that man should be alone.

I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whenever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you this morning for your goodness and your mercy and your kindness. Father, thank you this morning as we read your Word and we see the account of which at the beginning of mankind you reveal your will to us for marriage. Us for true marriage, for a true helpmate, for a true One that is flesh of our flesh. And Father, this is all from Your goodness and from Your mercy. Father, this morning would you draw us to Your Word?

Father, would Your Holy Spirit give us understanding as we go to Your Word that You would help us to overcome the customs of a culture, that we might know you and that we might live out your will correctly, that we might glorify you and Father even to our benefit. Father would you sanctify us in your word this morning we ask in Christ's name amen amen well this morning as we come to the Word of God I know there are things here of which are very contrary or contradictory to our culture, and there are things here because we have all grown up in a culture that can come off very abrasively and very difficultly and difficultly and may feel hurtful towards you, but I would ask, as I go into any message where I feel like this can be taken hardly, I would I would encourage you to examine the Word of God. And if what I share this morning is not from the Word of God, you have every reason to be upset with me, And you have every reason to call me up and tell me so. But if what I share this morning, if you go to the Word of God and you find that this is true, You have every reason to repent.

You have every reason to conform your lives to the text, to the scripture, to God's Word that He has given us. And as I go into this this morning, I understand I go into it with a deep love towards everyone in this room and in no way do I want to offend with my thoughts or my ideas, but As as brother Vodi Bakham says I didn't write the mail I just deliver it Amen Amen, let's Let's look at the Word of God. First, let's look at verses 18 through 20. It says, Then the Lord of God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. Let's pause there just for a few moments.

It is not good for man to be alone. One of the functions of marriage is that it's not good for man to be alone. Man finds trouble when he's alone. More completely, or to understand it even better, man finds that he is incomplete when he is alone. We understand theologically that a marriage is a complementary relationship.

And what that means is there are some things that you guys are better than the ladies at. And we see that in this world that is falling into chaos and how we want to cater to a cultural nonsense and allow men to compete in women's sports and all these things. And the man becomes the victor and we say, well, yeah, he's a man. Whether you want to agree with it or not, and I hope that you will, scientifically we know that Men are different than women. Men typically grow muscle or build muscle easier than women do.

Men are designed, God designed men to work. And that translates into them being strong. And that translates, God has also called men to be protectors. And that translates into men being strong. Now before you men get a big head, the women are also better than you at lots of things.

And while you men think very logically and can sometimes be very harsh with your children, your wives are there to restrain, to think emotionally, to relate emotionally better with your children than you can. It's as if God designed women to raise children if we only look at how he physically has equipped them. But as we get to the Word of God, we know that as well. But it's not good for man to be alone. As we come to this text, and we've already read through this, and so we know just this sort of section of text that starts with God saying that man shouldn't be alone, and so God provides the solution, and God tells us as we go through this process of a solution, and what is the solution for man being alone?

God created his helpmate, or God created woman, that man would not be alone. So as we look at just this text only, what can we surmise or what can we, how can we apply this to the family? Well, one, I think this is going to be very contrary to our culture. Why do I think that? Because my children, my young boys, and my daughter, So far in their life, my oldest boy is 18, and for 18 years, he has not been alone.

He has had a mother and a father, and he's had brothers and a sister. Where we see this transition happen in the scripture is that someday, I believe, Malachi will get married. And on that day, he will go from not being alone to not being alone. That's contrary to our culture. When Malachi was getting close to 18 last year, and nobody, I don't think anybody here, but I would, I'd go to Walmart every so often, and I try not to do that but sometimes I have to and inevitably I would meet somebody and they would say ask how old my kids are and I say well my oldest boy is almost ready to turn 18 and and almost always by the world their next reply is oh you'll be getting him out of the house what's he gonna do is he gonna go to college yeah I'm sure that's gonna be free up some some electric bills and all kinds of things and to tell you the truth I put a big smile on but I'm a little bit offended and Sometimes I even say well As far as I know and this is part.

This is a family process as well, he has no prospects, so I don't envision him leaving the house anytime soon. And I hope that he doesn't. And even at some points I have to remind Malachi he'll talk about you know he wants to buy this field and it has a pond there and he could build a house there and I say oh you're gonna get a move out soon well I don't know I'm like okay but you don't have any prospects or anything, do you? And all of my kids know quite well. 18, there's no magical 18 number in the Bible.

In fact, I don't think 18 has hardly any relevance. If there was any relevant age, I would say it was probably 12 or 13 when my boys transitioned into being men. And our relationship does change at that point, because now I don't expect you to act like a boy, I expect you to act like a man. You're another man in this household. And so goes the conversation.

As long as you contribute to the economy of the household, as long as you're not going to try to move your room into the basement and play games all day long, I expect you to stay home. I expect you to be part of this family. I expect us to be part of your courtship. And on the day that God has called you to leave your father and mother and claim to your wife, it will be a glorious day. Your dad will still cry probably.

How have we come to this as a culture? One, I believe part of the root of it is, is our culture has been taught to hate children. I watch it every fall where all the parents talk about how terrible summer was and it's finally over where we can send our children back to the government for their indoctrination and they can be free of this house. I talk to people regularly, who tell me they can't wait until their kids get of age and they can move out. This is hating children.

We don't love our children. It shouldn't be normal for our children to get a certain age and move out. It's not good for them. It shouldn't be. I don't think it should even be normal unless unless God has called you to a profession where you have to go away to a school and be alone?

I don't even know if that's still good. How do you demonstrate that? Look at what goes on at most colleges. This isn't Good. This isn't good for our children.

It's not good for man to be alone. It's not good for me to be alone. I believe it's Paul Washer, even as he travels for so long and I think still if it's not one of his children, one of the guys from his ministry is always with him. Whether it be in his hotel room or wherever it is, he always has someone with him. Why?

Because it's not good for him to be alone. It's not good for me to be alone. Why? Because as brother Jake said in the beginning, we still have this old man flesh. And when we're alone, this old man flesh gets his courage, and he pushes even harder.

And so often we, to our shame, we give in. We must quickly repent and claim to our Savior. Let's go back to the beginning. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.

Now out of the ground, the Lord had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him." So we see God allows Adam to take part in ministry. Adam gets to name every living creature, And as Adam has looked at every living creature, whether it be the birds of the air, whether it be, and obviously Adam is probably looking at more kinds of animals because we haven't, there's more variations today I would imagine. But Adam's looked at every kind of animal.

He's looked at birds. He's looked at fish. He's looked at beasts. He's looked at dogs. He's looked at all these things.

And what is his conclusion? There's not a helper fit for him. Now you might not imagine this but this again is very contrary to our culture. And what do I mean by that? One only has to go to social media for a short amount of time, or I've talked to people whom share these ideas, and they will, one time somebody opened up their billfold and said, Hey, have I ever showed you a picture of my kids?

And they opened it up, and what's in their billfold? A picture of two puppies. Brothers and sisters, those are not your kids. Are you hearing me? Adam saw dogs.

They weren't fit for him to be his companion. Now I'm not saying don't have dogs. I'm not saying that at all. Our culture lifts the creation above the Creator. They belittle children, they raise up the creation.

They belittle children, They raise up their pets. There's nothing wrong with pets, but they're not children. They're not equals with your children. They're not replacements for your children. They're not replacements for your companion.

They can make good companions, but not the companion you need. Amen? So Adam saw that there was none not a helper fit for him. So it's not good for man to be alone, and man needs to not be alone. He needs a helper that is fit for him.

Continuing on Genesis 2, 21 through 24, So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up his place with flesh, and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh." So we see this event or this thing that takes place. The man leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife.

Young people look at this verse well. It doesn't say, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his girlfriend. Do you hear me? That was the alarm bell, so you would listen really close. It doesn't say a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his gaming friends.

Man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." This is God's design for the family. Now to take a little bit of a side road, I would say, well, how did we get here in this culture? Why are we where we are? And part of it, if we separate scripture and scripture, we always see this happening. In fact, we'll look at Malachi where we know there's a time coming where God will turn the hearts of the fathers back to the sons and the sons back to the fathers.

That men will start to care about their family again. This is part of God reviving. The enemy is always trying to tear the family apart. The enemy is always trying to do these things for a very specific reason. And in fact, if we even separate ourselves farther from this, why do we live in a society that seems to want to tear up the family?

What's the same reason why the society wants to tangle you in sexual sin? Not to go into crazy side trails or anything like this, but this is the normal path of a nation, a secular nation. In fact, many years ago, the Soviet Union issued a warning to America that said, we will defeat you without firing a shot. And that seems silly, yet as we look at ourselves Decades later, we see that this ideology that presented this threat to us is succeeding. How is it succeeding?

Well, if you go to the internet or go to maybe even the public library, they have books that tell their plan of how this will succeed. And then these plans for the socialist or communist ideologies to take over a nation, that plan always includes destroying the family. It always includes tangle the people in sexual sin. And not to take too long here, but why is this? I think it was Adolf Hitler that understood this or shared this in one of his writings or one of his quotes.

He said, I can't... This is butchering, this is paraphrasing, I can't remember the quote, but in essence it's this, If you're a Christian, I can't get you to give up your Bible. The Christians will get burned at the stake. They'll keep them, they'll hide them, they'll smuggle them, they will not give up their Bible. And we can fight against them, and we can war against that as we've seen in the past how these ideologies have tried to war against that, and to burn them, and do all these things, but it's never been successful.

There's always a remnant. But what they did understand is if they could tangle them in sexual sin, they'll burn their own Bibles. They won't read them anymore. Their Bibles will become offensive to them. They will turn on themselves.

So the the communist ideology, it's strange because they don't have to fire a shot. We will destroy ourselves. In fact, we see that watered down in a culture who will tear families apart, who will Always want your children younger. We're shocked at this point at the things that are being taught in the public schools and taught very young. And now they will feed your children breakfast and lunch.

And I want you to bring them earlier and earlier even up to I think in some places even three years old they're already having a pre preschool this isn't because they love your children do you know how I know Because children have a knack of reading at different ages. Your child might struggle to read at whatever the normal age is, but in a couple of years they'll read. And then we have all these standards of what we think your child should be at, and I would warn you as a culture, if you find that your child isn't at this standard at this age, Don't panic. Don't think that you're a bad home school mom, because you're not. It's just what our culture thinks.

Our culture is foolish. Do you want to protect your children? Do you want to keep them reading their Bible? Protect them fervently from sexual sin. Don't let them be alone with their devices.

It's a plot to destroy your family. This is very direct, but I want you to hear this. The reason they want every kid to have these devices and computers and all these things, it's a plot, it's a direct assault to your family. Men, the enemy is lobbing mortars into your house, and they've convinced you to pay for it. Do you want your kids to become disinterested in the Bible?

Let them be engrossed in the culture. Do you want to see men become ineffective in their house? There are some sports that I like to play, but at any time if they become more important than the church, more important than my family. They're idolatrous. Men, if you know more sports facts than you know Bible facts, You're in idolatry and you need to repent.

Your children are suffering for it. How is the communist, and I shouldn't even say communist, false religion, Gnosticism, how does the enemy win? Well, in our culture, he can simply entertain you. Entertain you to the point where church doesn't matter. We'll get on more with that.

Let's continue on. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Now this understanding of one flesh has a great understanding or great implications all throughout Scripture. If you look at 1st Corinthians 6, 15 through 20, it says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? So I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh." We're reminded again of this text. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but sexual immorality, the sexually immoral person, sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have with God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." We're reminded that as we become a Christian, God joins us with Him, that we are adopted into his family, that we are of Christ. And in fact, we find later in the text, as we come to the end, we'll look at this again, that marriage is an illustration of Christ and his church.

Marriage is an illustration of God's relationship with his people. That as we become one flesh, if you repent and trust in Christ, and if you are in Christ, you are one flesh. And this relationship does not end. If you're in Christ, it's He who keeps you. If you're in Christ, there is no divorce.

Understand rightly, If you are really in Christ, there's no divorce. God won't fail in redeeming you. You're there. It's as if you're already with Him in heaven. But yet we're still here to glorify Him in this life, amen?

There is no divorce. And so with this understanding that we are one with Christ and husbands and wives are one in the flesh. There's more than just a physical union, it's also a spiritual union that's very profound, and even greater than what physically is going on, is that the proclamation to the world that this is how God relates to His church. In Matthew chapter 19 verses 3 through 9, it speaks of divorce. It says, And the Pharisees came to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause.

And he answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning has made them, I'm sorry, from the beginning made them male and female, and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.' They said to him, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away. He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." So as a husband and wife become one flesh, it is greater than the physical.

It's also a spiritual. And then even greater than that is it's proclaiming to the world who God is. Now there is a quote that we hear very often, and I'll be quite honest, it's a very annoying quote to me. And that quote is, is, share Christ, and if necessary, use words. Now that's a bad quote, I think.

Why? Because God told us to use words to share Christ. Amen? Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel, to trump it, to proclaim. But I would tell you there is some truth to that, because if you are here this morning and you are married, you are proclaiming Christ without using words.

And I would ask you, how is that proclamation going? What are you telling the world by your relationship? What are you telling the world by the way you love your wife? Now to spend a little more time here, I want us to really understand rightly what is being said here, because we live in a very divorce-prone culture. In fact, I don't...Barna and all the research groups and all that stuff, they put out statistics, and one of those statistics was the divorce rate inside the church is the same outside the church and I actually disagree with that.

I think that he is completely wrong. You say, what do you mean he's completely wrong? And I would say the reason he's completely wrong is because he doesn't know what the church is. The divorce rate inside of mainstream Christianity is the same as it is outside. I believe that.

One, because he studied it longer than I did. The difference is, is what is a true Christian? As we come, as you and I who are in Christ, as we come to the text, we have to understand this not with the filter of a divorce prone culture in front of our eyes. What does it say? One, It doesn't say here, we'll go on, but let me just read through this once more, I'm sorry.

And the Pharisee came to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And he answered, he comes back to the text that we're looking at today, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore God has joined together, let man not separate. One, we understand that if you come to be joined together, if you come in marriage, that it's not just you that has done the joining.

That God has joined you together. And he says, let man not separate. So they said to him, the Pharisees didn't like this idea, they They had their own loopholes for this. So they said to him, Why did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and send her away? And he said, Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

And I say to you, whoever divorces a wife except for a sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery." So we see within Moses and we see within Christ that he has given us an exception. It says except for sexual immorality and you marry another you commit adultery. But we have to understand this rightly. One, This divorce because of sexual immorality is only permitted because of the hardness of your heart. This has very deep implications when put into this context.

What this means is, we know, what does the Bible say, God hates divorce. This morning, hear me, God hates all divorce. It tells us a lie about him. It tells the world without using words a lie about God because God has instituted marriage to symbolize the relationship between Christ and the church. Now there is an exception, but I would tell you this morning, The subception isn't good.

It's not the good route. God has only permitted it. He doesn't like it. He says it's not sin, but I don't think it's what's preferred. Now to take another short side trail, what kind of got this started in?

It was a few weeks ago we had talked about the government and how things are changing and more you know as potentially even in this annual meeting coming up, we may have some more things to add to our bylaws because of things that are just to protect us from from being sued because we won't do what the Bible tells us not to do. Or tells us to... Yeah, you get what I mean? But we have to, where I'm going with that, if we, I'm trying to think of how to word it well, if the Bible tells us what a marriage is, we can only do that marriage. God decides what marriage is.

If God says one thing and the culture says something different, God is right. Amen. We have to understand that though I started to go down the road and now I was gonna take a rabbit trail now I'm trying to find my way back but let me read this last part. He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Now I remember where I was going with this.

So someone came to me and they said, well you know it seems like the best avenue is for the church to just be done with the state. The state has no interest in marriage. The state doesn't need to be a part of that. Let's just leave it to the church. And that's interesting, and I'm not saying I'm against that.

I'm not saying I'm for it, too. I haven't thought it well through. But my first reaction is this. I really like that if a man was to divorce his wife, the state is likely going to make it cost dearly to him. I like that you're going to maybe lose half of your stuff and spend the rest of your life them taking money out of your check to support your children.

I like that. Hopefully none of you don't like me for saying that. I don't know. I think you'll all like that I hope. Why do I like it?

Because I want there to be discouragement. I want this to be a last resort. And in fact, as we see, I'm sorry to jump around, but as we see that it's permitted in a certain instance, I think it was John MacArthur that said something well towards us, that it is the absolute last resort. It is when nothing else works, And not nothing else works according to our culture, but nothing else works. And I still don't know if I like it.

I don't. Because God hates it. Amen? God hates it. Amen?

Alright, let's... So, so backing up, I like, I like it when there are physical, worldly penalties, But at the same time, and I was thinking about this this morning, at the same time, because the world forces you to do something doesn't mean you have a change of heart. And so as I further think through that, and I'm not going to be crazy much longer, as I further think through that, why isn't it, and this is stepping back, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm going to refocus y'all. Let's shake this off. Refocus.

Why is it that I would want there to be worldly penalties? I believe this falls out from bad theology from other areas. Why do I say that? Because of our culture, because of our lack of care of church membership. A while back, probably a century or two back, the Puritans would have looked very much differently about church membership than you and I would.

The Puritans took very seriously that as we talked a few weeks ago about when two or more are gathered, their God is in their midst, and it's speaking directly about church discipline. And church discipline was severe because the Puritans understood that there was a connection between church membership, as it's done on earth, or to be done on earth as it is in heaven, that there is a connection even in that Scripture that doesn't mean that if you're a church member you're going to heaven, but it should give you some confirmation, it should give you some reassurance, but at the same time if you are removed from church membership, if you were to understand it rightly, It should be worse than losing half of your life savings. But our culture has watered down church. Church is something you do when there's nothing else going on. Church is something that we take not all that seriously until maybe the ends of our days and usually not even that.

So why do I, and I'm trying to not spend putting my brain out before you, but why would I prefer that there be worldly penalties? One, because the penalties within the church don't hold weight in today's age. They should. You should be terrified if your church is removing you from their membership. If it's a biblical church, if it's not one, then you probably should be celebrating maybe.

Amen. Let's continue. I'm going to be here all morning. We're further clarified to this in 1st Corinthians 7, 12 through 16. It says, To the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.

If a woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him, for the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace, for how do you know wife, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife.

Now we write off the bat to young people, you are commanded in Scripture to not be unequally yoked. There is no option to marry an unbeliever. And for one, there are much hardship in those whom do. And there are some, because of just the way things are, that it wasn't an option, that this is where they find themselves. And if they find themselves married to an unbeliever, this instruction is specifically towards them.

The promise, the first, the promise that this gives us is if you are married to an unbeliever, that this—if God has called them to come to repentance and faith, if God has called to save them, He is saying—or this text is saying—that He is using you in that calling. He's using you in that process. And I know that within that process, it hurts, and it's painful, and there's much suffering. As we look at other parts of scripture, we're reminded, I think it's in Ephesians, where older women are to train younger women to love their husbands. Church, the younger women need you.

Older women, the younger women need you, especially if they're in this situation. Because to love their husband isn't just to have feelings for them or to do these things. It is to lay down their life to suffer that God might save them. And that's not easy. And if there's any young ladies in here going through that, Older Christian woman, they need you.

They need support. They need loved on when they don't feel loved. They need you. But what we also see in this, as we've seen through the martyrs and the reformers and all these people, that oftentimes serving God includes suffering. And the most noble thing that you can do is to lay down your life, to lay down your desires, to lay down your hopes, to obey God and what He's called you to do.

The Bible doesn't say if you're married to an unbelieving wife, you can divorce her. It doesn't say if it's hard, you can divorce them. Now I do believe there are times where, especially in instances of physical abuse and things like that, that there are times where there may need to be a separation. But this should be done with your elders helping you and advising you and doing these things. I don't believe, and this is very hard to say, I don't believe that physical abuse constitutes divorce.

Why don't I believe that? The Bible doesn't say so. Now I also don't believe that it means you stay there and be beaten. Again, and this is separate from this, if you're in Christ, if you're a Christian marriage and your husband hits you, you come to your elders and we will hit him back. Maybe not hit him back, but we will talk, and it will escalate.

We're called to protect, amen. Going on, Malachi 2, 13 through 16. And the second thing you do, and this is a second accusation, it says the second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altars with tears and with weeping and groaning because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand, but you say, why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union?

And what was the one thing or one what was the one God seeking? What is what is one thing God is seeking in your marriage? He answers it for us. Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in the spirit and let none of you be faithless to your wife of your youth For the man who does not love his wife But divorces her says the Lord the God of Israel covers his garment with violence says the Lord of hosts so guard yourself in your spirit and do not be faithless God has given you a spouse that you might raise godly offspring and that is of primary It's not so that you raise youth that can make you relive your football years.

Now I'm not saying your youth can't play football, But priorities in our culture are crazy out of whack. Friends, I love you, but there's no reason your children should miss coming together together for a ballgame. It has little importance. I counseled a young man in high school when all of his friends turned on him several years ago and he was a senior and he had two or three months left. And I said, I'm gonna be completely honest with you.

In two years, it's very likely you'll never see any of these people ever again. And maybe you'll keep up with them once every couple of years. Sometimes I talk to one of my high school friends like once every two years I might see him somewhere, send them a message. These people are going to be gone. Everything you do will be gone.

This is of little importance. Put your trust in Christ. He is the only thing that's going to last. He's the only thing worth spending your time and effort. And I'm not saying...

There can be entertainment, and there can be these things, but they are secondary to knowing Christ, whom will be beneficial for all of eternity. Are you raising godly offspring? Do your priorities show that? Do your actions show that? Are you discipling your children?

Finally in Ephesians 5 29 through 33, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church. But we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband." Well this morning in conclusion I would like to encourage you.

I was going to put it in here and I must not have added it, but If you remember the book of Hosea and Gomer, Gomer was a prostitute. She continued to run off and continue to do these things. And God said, get her again, marry her, forgive her. And the reasoning for it was, is God saying, I'm going to use you to demonstrate my relationship with my people. Now I look at these things and I didn't know much of this when I was first in ministry and I didn't know much of this for a long time.

And some of you would say, well, Pastor Doug sure is getting on me today, or getting on everybody today. But I would end it with God's relationship to His people is one that He doesn't give up. He's persistent. If you're in Christ, He doesn't give up on you. If you're in Christ, because you haven't done these things perfectly, He doesn't say, well, I'm just getting rid of you.

I'm going to divorce you. That's not Christ. In fact, that's why He doesn't want you to do this so badly. When you mess up, He forgives you again. When you mess up, He forgives you again.

And When you mess up, he forgives you again. When you mess up, he forgives you again. And when you mess up, he forgives you again. Your relationship to your spouse is an illustration of God's relationship to His church. I know, I can tell you one thing that I know about the best in this room and you might not believe this but my wife has to endure a lot.

I know me quite well And I know some of you are struggling with way harder problems than that even. But be encouraged. You have a body of brothers and sisters who love you. Don't give up. Don't go down the divorce road, if at all possible.

Even if you spend the rest of your life working at it. Don't go down that road. It's not good. God hates it. Young people, Save yourself from this pain.

Don't, maybe I don't have time this morning, but one of these Sundays, I would just encourage you, examine what the world calls dating and see what the scriptures say about it, because it's not the same thing. You want to find a disaster, date as the world does it. Save yourself from this pain. But at the end, as we will be getting into the book of Revelation, Revelation is not a scary book, it's an encouraging book. What it proclaims is Christ is victorious.

While this world involves suffering, one day we will be with our King and suffering will be gone. So suffer today for His glory. Live for Him for His glory. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. I pray, Father, that we would receive your words with understanding. I pray that we would, When all of our emotions, whom are brought up by a culture, rare up to dislike what's being said, Father, I pray that it would cause us to draw to Your Word, that we would desire to understand it. And Father, when Your Word disagrees with our emotions, I pray that we would beat this flesh and this objection, and we would glorify you in our obedience.

Father, thank you that you never give up on me. Father, I thank you that you never give up on us. As Father, our flesh is full of a multitude of sins against you. Father, would you grant us repentance? Father, would you help us to glorify you in our marriages?

Father for those whom are unequally yoked would you help them and give them mercy to glorify you and the suffering. And Father your word says that you use them, You use their suffering, you use their obedience, you use their love, you use their submission to oftentimes bring their spouse to repentance and faith. And Father, this morning we would pray, come Lord Jesus help our unequally yoked brothers and sisters. Father would you raise up older men and older women who would teach the younger men and younger women to love their wives and to respect their husbands and to love their husbands even when it's the hardest seems like the hardest thing in the world. Father, we thank you that you bear with us.

We thank you that all those who turn and put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, that you change us, help us to be more like you, help us to love our enemies, And therein glorify you, Father, we pray in Christ's name, amen.