God’s binding purpose for marriage is the focal point of this sermon in which Pastor Babij explores Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce. Against a backdrop of Pharisaical provocation, Jesus’ response provides recourse to the Mosaic law. Pastor Babij draws applications from Deuteronomy and 1 Corinthians to encourage Christians to foster commitment as the fount of biblical, abiding love in their marriages.
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all right had to run out real quick I found out that my battery on my mic was not working so go get your batteries all right let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to mark chapter 10 we’re continuing to go through the Gospel of Mark today I have the Lord’s table so I will be stoppi stopping short of the conclusion of the message today so I’m kind of kind of leave you hanging today so you have to be back next week let’s pray lord thank you for your tremendous grace that you bestow upon your children thank you Lord you give us the authority to be called children of God for the first time we can actually call our Father in heaven father because of Christ because he made a new in living way into your presence by his blood and so Lord we appreciate that we thank you Lord you’ve given us the Word of God so we can know your will you can know what you want you can know what you’ve done and I pray Lord as you transform our minds with the Word of God you would make us serious disciples disciples Lord who know what they believe and know what they’re to do they can articulate the gospel and they can also live the gospel and I pray that you would make every one of us those kind of people and do it Lord for the glory of your name so Christ can be lifted up and the message of the gospel can go out with power I pray in Christ’s name Amen so we’re gonna chapter 10 and if you notice the title of the messages truths the truths of serious discipleship this would be the third message on this and underneath that is marriage and divorce what the Bible says about that so I’m going to be spending several weeks on that to flesh that out but the past times we have met together in the Gospel of Mark Jesus has been teaching his disciples concerning the serious nature of discipleship that Jesus has been dispelling the current false notions of what the Son of Man would come to accomplish when he came to the earth the first time even Jesus closest disciples had a difficult time grasping the necessity of the Messiah when he came should suffer death and before anything else could take place so as it is paramount that those who follow Christ take it seriously and grasp the truth surrounding real discipleship the the five important truths about serious discipleship what it looks like and I put forth so far four and five of them the first one being listening to Jesus and understanding the will of God is paramount secondly that self-sacrificing service to others is the greatest pursuit in this world thirdly that discernment and restraint are necessary when judging who are Christ’s real disciples and who are not and then fourthly sin is to be taken seriously as to be defeated at all costs under that one the admonition was right now every precaution needs to be made to cut off everything in our lives that leads us to sin or lead someone else to send and get rid of it and then the last one we looked at where the dynamics of discipleship serious disciples spread their influence and let’s look at a verse 40 chapter 9 verse 49 and 50 it says for everyone will be salted with fire salt is good but if the salt becomes unsalted with what will use make it’s salty again have salt in yourselves or among yourselves and be at peace with one another so that’s where we ended last time so Jesus announces that our ability to preserve the world is in order that it may see Christ in us and this depends on us being different serious disciples are different people they are holy people and God has placed his children in the world to make a difference and to be different in order to purify to preserve to flavor and then to seek peace and that piece is really sought in the world by preaching the gospel of peace so the point being that disputing about status and causing other believers to stumble and not taking sin seriously do not set the groundwork for the purity the preservations the flight the flavor and the peaceful fellowship that should be characterized by Christ’s disciples and that’s where we left off last time but I believe that whole analogy or picture of being salt of the earth carries into our next section section so today I’m I’m actually adding the next issue to the list of serious discipleship of how it should look and because it is about the important subject of marriage and divorce that’s a huge subject even today if the subject still talked about it still debated today and it always probably will be how Christ disciples understand the institution of marriage and then how they conduct themselves in their marriages is part of being the salt of the earth most people have some kind of awareness that our culture has been radically changed in regard to the institution of marriage not you would agree with that dr. albert Mohler in his recent book we cannot be silent discerning li said we are now witnesses to a revolution that is sweeping away a sexual morality and a definition of marriage that has existed for thousands of years this is the morality and understanding of marriage as has been central to societies shaped by the biblical witness and the influence of both Judaism and Christianity it is also important to note he said that throughout human history in virtually all civilizations marriage has been understood as the union of a man and a woman that has changed has it not redefining marriage has taken much ground in our society and it has come up upon us quicker than we have ever expected molars also said when marriage is redefined any time an entire universe of laws custom rules and expectations change as well words such as husband and wife mother and father at one time common vocabulary everybody knew what it meant in the society are now battlegrounds for moral conflict with the arrival of birth control no-fault divorce in the early 1970s which really set the groundwork for the development of the homosexual movement the normalization of the same-sex relationships which led to the legalization of same-sex marriage and recently to further confuse things the redefinition of sex and gender which has sparked the transgender revolution with no end in sight in fact this week I heard in the news that a family in New York City had a going coming-out party for a five year old as if a five year old knows the difference between anything this is where the world’s going so then what will marriage mean when virtually anyone has the right to marry when virtually anyone has to has the right to redefine marriage however they would like and marry whomever they want or whatever thing they want well we are witnessing right before our eyes that is marriage as a privilege and respect the institution is disappearing right before our eyes marriage will never be the same now where do we come in on that well biblical Christians can that’s can cannot at all whatsoever sit by and let the waves of an evil and perverse generation wash over us and sweep us away and cause us to be just like everyone else we have the Word of God that gives us the correct understanding of sex of gender of marriage and morality in other words the Bible we’ll establish the framework for a clearer understanding of marriage its identity and sexual sexuality itself and the church must seize the opportunity to be a courageous Christian witness to the gospel and to the biblical pattern of what a good and godly marriage should be between one man and one woman now that brings me to our passage mark chapter 10 look at verse 1 here’s like the logistical background getting up he that’s Jesus went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan crowds gathered around him again and according to his custom he wants once more began to teach them now verse number one at a quick glance you may have missed geographically what is going on here see Jesus was just in Galilee and we find him and his disciples heading to the region of Judea and that’s significant why is that because it is the end the end of Jesus ministry is drawing near so him and his disciples were heading south towards Jerusalem now that’s about a hundred mile trek on foot so he had a plenty of time as he was walking with his disciples to teach them along the way but when he got to a certain place the the crowds already knew of Jesus Christ and so they wherever he was they gathered and that’s what’s going on here he’s also heading into enemy territory and once his enemies knew he was in the area they were already coming against him of course they did not come to listen to Jesus teachings they came to ask him a hard question in order to trip him up they came to tempt him with a question now what is the question well look what it says in verse number two the question of course is on divorce some Pharisees came up to Jesus testing him and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife so the Pharisees were not asking the question to be taught or to learn the truth and the correct answer to the question this of course is clear from our text that they were coming to test Jesus in other words to tempt him in order to entrap him to try to find him guilty of breaking one of their laws so they can condemn him that was their motive and that was their motive all the way up until he was crucified they were trying to get anything they could on him to condemn him and so of course they asked the question and what Jesus usually does is ask a question against their question but if the question is pretty simple the question in verse number three and he answered and said to them what did Moses command you so what does Jesus do he takes them back to Scripture all right specifically to the book of Deuteronomy and what Moses said on the subject and what was the Pharisees reply in verse number four they said Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away now to understand that question and the answer we have to get some background now I want to say at the beginning of this that I’m going to come back to this particular passage of Scripture again at the end next week but today I just want you to kind of get in your mind some of the things that were being said about and believed during that time about the whole issue of divorce now so the question needs some background and to get some background for the from for the question we need to go to Deuteronomy chapter 24 and look at verse 1 through 4 Deuteronomy chapter 24 verses 1 through 4 now Deuteronomy means second law and really what Deuteronomy is it’s a real practical explanation of the law that’s what it is it’s here’s the law this is how it’s put into practice that’s how what Deuteronomy is Deuteronomy means second alright so that’s what’s going on here and of course Moses said in this passage that if the husband should find in his wife someone cleanness he could put her away giving her a writing of divorcement the Mosaic legislation was to control divorce to control a situation that become could become messy because of a very low view of women and even the abuse of women who were being divorced for any reason and very unfair with very unfair treatment and of course the endless suffering of of children so in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1 through 4 there’s about three general principles and I just want to share them with you and what I say about them is gonna change next week not everything but some things and the reason why it’s going to change is because Jesus gives the correct interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 but I’m not going there today so let’s look at it this is more of what is understood by the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day now the main main points are true but what comes under them all right here’s the first one that the first principle of Deuteronomy 24 it this divorce is limited to certain cause or certain causes right Deuteronomy 24 verse 11 number one when a man takes a wife and marries her and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her let me just stop right there so this man marries wife then later they’ve been married for a while and you find some indecency in her now this undie sincere of this venus has been said to be something vile something dirty something shameful something unappropriate about unappropriate conduct that table possibly caused the husband to be embarrassed to be disgraced or to have some displeasure now at the first reading it may seem that it’s not adultery because if it were adultery the penalty of adultery would be death right like it says in Leviticus 20:10 also the husband had to prove it and establish it before witnesses so the first principle is it’s limited to certain causes second principle is if a husband divorced his wife he must give her a bill of divorce meant it says in verse number one also and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of out from his house so here this is was commanded to protect the woman to prove that she had been dismissed according to the law of Moses now again seemingly not because of unfaithfulness but because of some uncleanness now this was a civil law for tolerance and the prevention of a greater evil such as to prevent a hard-hearted husband to abuse her or to have violence towards her or even to murder her it was given for the prevention of violence and bloodshed so she was released from the marriage but not for immorality which causes the phial men but for some uncleanness discovered after the man and the woman were married so the second principle being if the man divorced his wife he must give her a bill of divorcement now bill of divorcement did mean that he was giving her something that her legally leave the home where she would not come under any kind of persecution because she had that certificate a third general principle and verse 2 to 4 would be that the man who gave his wife a bill of divorcement he also was allowed was not allowed to marry her again look at verse number 2 it says and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife verse 3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife since she has been defiled now why she defiled well not today next week we’ll learn that it says this then for this is an abomination before the Lord and you shall not bring sin in the land which the Lord your God gives you as it inheritance all right so saying that in the mind of the Pharisees and the mind of the religious leaders what they were teaching is significant because they were clamping on one particular phrase that the religious teachers seemed to take this phrase and expand it alright and if you notice in verse 1 1 again let’s look at that dude around 24 1 when a man takes a wife and marries her and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her all right now since the term indecency is rather vague it lent itself to two diverse interpretations two schools of thought now of course uncleanness in the Old Testament could refer to a religious uncleanness where somebody could be involved with idolatry or some sin it could refer to ceremonial unclean this where someone would have contact with an unclean animal some kind of food they shouldn’t be eating or a person it could be physical uncleanness where it could be that maybe the woman couldn’t give that particular man children or it could be a bodily emissions or leprosy or contact with the dead there are a multitude of things that would make someone unclean or indecent now the two schools of thought were the shemites who were conservative and they held that only uncleanness of gross character according to the law could be grounds for divorce in other words there’s no divorce for them and then the Hillel i’ts they were the Liberals they recognized the number of reasons for divorce even the most trivial reason as burning the toast or borne it burning the bread the man I don’t know they believed anything unseemly in the eyes of the husband constituted and uncleanness which be which would be a ground for divorce in other words divorced virtually on any grounds all right now what school do you think was the most popular all right it was the Hillel i’ts the the liberal group right all right because rabbi Hillel that where it came from died 20 years before Christ and as a result his teaching was already synthesized into the teaching of the Pharisees and the religious leaders and already woven very deeply into the fabric of societies and into the minds of the disciples can’t forget that so then divorce was rampant in Giroux in Judaism it was everywhere and some of the Jews even boasted that God had given them special privilege of divorcing their wives for any reason whatsoever that was part of the benefit of yuju so the Pharisees were trying to pit Christ up against one of these schools of thought and public opinion religiously to get Jesus to oppose the majority view and of course so that he may alienate his prospective followers and then it could be possibly politically against Herod and maybe with the same results that John the Baptizer received by being put putting him in prison because he told Herod it was unlawful to have his brother’s wife so there was a lot of stuff going on here and what was going on in this particular dialogue however a Christ could not be bitten by these snakes in the grass he completely ignored giving any credence to their views which he always does instead what does he do instead he appeals to an authority that had to be reckoned with and what what authority is that the Word of God itself it’s always go back to the Word of God right find out what it says now specifically what Moses taught in Genesis or the book of beginnings what Moses taught neither gave command nor liberty to anything anyone what he wanted to do it was very restrictive in fact this is how the Lord starts it off the Lord gives the original plan so this is what the Lord taught look at mark chapter 10 verse 5 now before I read that the Lord Jesus Christ was correcting a false interpretation of a perversion of this law and this is how he starts off but jesus said to them in verse 5 because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment verse 6 but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall come one flesh so that they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let no man separate so what does the Lord do here the Lord gives the original blueprints for marriage to his audience and then specifically to his disciples and if we think about the original blueprints of marriage it includes at least three things about the marriage relationship three things here’s the first thing the first thing is this that marriage is a relationship whereby the husband and the wife are rendered one flesh not two the two become one now that becomes very significant and important for it says for this reason a man shall leave father and mother they depart from the authority of their father and mother and they now are cleaved or cemented to their wife they become one and no longer two so God in other words has not changed his mind concerning divorce he hates it and through the Malachi the Prophet he declared that he hates does divorce because a man who divorces his wife overwhelms her with cruelty in Malachi it said simply this and what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring take heed then to your spirit let no one deal treacherously against the life of your youth and he repeats that twice in Malachi so divorce is the violent wrenching a part of that which is meant to be indecipherable therefore let not man put asunder what God has joined in other words it is impossible to try to make one thing two things without doing violence to its unity and what happens in divorce is that when men a man and woman separated it does violence to the oneness that got intended in marriage so this is God’s original tension in marriage before the fall of man at the sin before man man’s heart was hardened and so the second the second thing that is included in the marriage relationship is the marriage is a permanent relationship in verse number nine of mark 10 it says what therefore God has joined together let no man separate see in other words marriage is God’s work and when God designed it originally he designed it to be permanent one man one woman two becoming one it’s supposed to be in sickness and in health for richer or for poorer for better or for worse till death do you part is it not see it’s not till divorce court do part us it’s not till midlifecrisis do part us it is not till something better comes along do part us and it’s not let’s not get married at all let’s just live together see they think those who want to cohabitate that hey if I don’t get involved with marriage at all then there’s no commitment and there I don’t I’m not in trouble at all but the only problem is is they’re messing with fire and they will burned in ways they would not expect because the Bible says in Hebrews let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators those who have sex before marriage and adulterers those who have sex in marriage with someone else God will judge so God takes this particular institution super serious and we ought to – but the world’s not taking it serious anymore and that’s the point and the disciples if they have a wrong view of what the Old Testament says about it they’re not taking it as they ought to take it with a certain level of seriousness so the problem is in our text hard-hearted niceness that is a person who does not want to obey God’s design in verse number five again it says because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment so to think of marriage as some sort of probationary experiment which is if it works out fine if not that’s too bad we tried is a twisted and incorrect way of course and perverted way of looking at this serious institution of marriage that the Lord’s disciples are those who are to look upon marriage as an irrevocable in the soluble and soluble and permanent union that was a union that they nor someone else should not break so we don’t realize though how much we have been pushed into the pattern of the world’s teaching on this subject we have all of us are affected by what the world and how the world views this institution Hollywood has given us the impression that when we are bitten by the Love Bug we get this feeling that we never had before called romantic love now don’t get me wrong I do believe that a couple who’s following the Word of God and following the Lord can be sweethearts the whole of their married life but that just doesn’t happen that takes a lot a lot of consideration and work on both the people woman’s in the man’s part so this feeling romantic love comes upon us with great abundance in which one thinks that they can go on and on living on this romantic love for all time as the parent says to the daughter of the son well what are you going to live on we’re gonna live on love and of course you can see the smirk on the parents face then after being married for a while the reality of life settles in and one day they discovered that this mysterious love bug has flown away then they think I don’t love him anymore I don’t love her anymore the way I used to with that romantic love it’s not there any longer they conclude the only thing left is divorce court that’s where people go right away so we have been fed a lie and have believed it in fact we have based our whole society on the romanticists concept of love and have rejected the biblical teaching about the subject we have rejected the will of God on the whole matter of marriage the romanticists concept of love is a delusion it is simply put a bunch of baloney now I am saying that I’m not saying that two people don’t fall in love with each other and love each other the rest of their life but see the problem is what is the definition of love a biblical concept of love is sacrificial and unselfish it is a love that develops by the way we are committed to other people love in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 you probably should turn there very quickly keep your hand in mark tells us it really well you know the love and first Corinthians chapter 13 tells us is a way what it tells us is a way of treating people what is interesting in this particular section of Scripture there is not a romantic emotion found in that whole chapter first Corinthians chapter 13 there is instructions about how to deal with people what does it say look at verse number 4 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verse 4 look what it says love is patient love is kind it is not jealous love does not brag and is not arrogant verse 5 love does not act unbecomingly it does not seek its own that meaning its unselfish it is not provoked does not take into account a wrong suffered I mean it doesn’t mull over the same thing over and over again verse 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth and in verse 7 bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things that kind of love never fails and that is the kind of love that we are called to when we talk about the biblical love that a husband ought to have for his wife all right in other words the sacrificial love of a husband for their wise and the submissive respectful love a wife is to have for her husband so marriage is not based so much upon love and that of course may startle some of you as it is based upon commitment commitment to believe that the marriage is a permanent institution it is an insoluble relationship between two who have become one who are no longer to see until we have that commitment we do not have fertile ground for the seeds of love that take hold and develop deep roots when two people are committed to each other with that kind of love so if you if you do not put oil and fill up the fluids in your car periodically it is not going to run very well very long if you take care of it it will if we have a marriage and don’t put the oil of the Spirit into it and the Word of God into it and the commitment into it it is not going to work or run very well very long but if you do it we’ll see real love comes and is sustained through the Holy Spirit commitment a person has towards their spouse so if you think of your marriage as a gift from God and realize that it is a permanent relationship that will not be broken then there will be a distinct difference how you take care of your marriage if you own a car and you have to keep that car for 40 years and there would be no other car to replace it you would care for that car differently maybe this is a less favorable comparison but some who have married take care of their stuff better than they do their marriages and that is a shameful thing that needs to change how differently we will care for our spouses when we are convinced and committed that marriage is a lifetime agreement and that we’re going to stick in it through thick and thin no matter what for this reason because it glorifies God because this is God’s plan for us this is what God intended and what God intends is all right and good for everyone and not only that it is a testimony to the world who has taken this institution and stretched it and shaped it like play-doh like pudding and it’s no one could even recognize it anymore and brethren let me just say this that great wisdom and counsel and discernment and prayer needs to go in to the person that young lady and a young man that the person that you’re going to be cemented to the rest of your earthly life you needed to take that consideration into serious consideration who you’re going to marry think about it before the love bug bites think about it in the realm of can I could be committed to this person and I give my whole self to this person can this person and I actually have what it takes and believe me I do not see and experts say that people who have the least in common attract each other that’s not true that people with the most in common attract each other and stay in a marriage with each other you have to have things in common you can’t just have certain feelings that are going on at a particular time determine whether you’re going to spend the rest of your life with this individual there must be a much thought in fact young people go to your parents go to the people that in the church that you could get good counsel from and ask them and get them to know that person so they can make a pretty good decision to help you with it because sometimes the count the kind of counsel that goes into somebody who falls in quote in love is not good and it ends up many times in disaster and divorce so see the marriage relationship is a permanent relationship that’s how God designed it and then thirdly the marriage is a holy relationship it is a holy relationship Jesus says in verse number five but jesus said to him because of the hardness of heart he wrote this commandment now that commandment was written because men’s hearts towards their wives were getting very very hard and so if they interpreted that statement very loosely if I find something in her I don’t like she’s out of here she’s out of here like Vladimir all right all right I’m getting rid of her because she doesn’t meet my criteria of what I want that’s hard heartedness that is not biblical love see because of the hardness of the israelites hearts Moses allowed them to put away their wives sometimes we forget what it is that causes divorce the Bible makes it very clear the reason for divorce is sin that’s the reason the sin of selfishness the sin of anger and hostility unresolved the sin of lovelessness the sin of lack of respect the sin of an unappreciative miss and thankfulness the sin of Pride and unkindness and unforgiveness the sin of verbal and physical and emotional abuse the sin of lying and dishonesty the sin of seeking our own instead of our partners well-being and of course the sin of our text the sin of adultery all these sins and more drive people apart that is not God’s intention nor does it please him see God’s intention is to stay in your marriage and to work it out see it is only Christ who by his shed blood can rid us of sin to bring people together again sometimes we forget that God’s highest purpose for us in this world is not that we should be happy before we can be happy we must be holy gods first purpose for us in this world is that we might be holy in order that we might be happy holiness comes first obedience comes first maybe there’s there’s no better place for a man and a woman two sinners becoming one to be sanctified that’s set apart to be made holy then in the marriage relationship maybe that’s the best place for it to happen there’s never any true and lasting happiness without holiness so in other words God is at work in our marriages but too easily we want to flee from the situation we are too ready to take all the rough edges we all bring into the marriages and run away with them God says no he is at work in our lives and there are some rough edges in our lives right now that God is using your spouse to rub down that’s what sanctification is and it hurts and you feel like running but don’t run give yourself to it because God is using it to make you holy but he’s also using it to make your marriage become a picture of how Christ loves the church he’s doing it so your marriage becomes what you think or you thought it could never be only Christ can do that so see Christ is the answer for all of us to have marriages that specifically and definitely reflect the character of God and how Christ loves the church I know sometimes you can’t leave that but that is true and so therefore I believe that Christians should not even have divorce in their dictionary it you should go home today and cut it out of your dictionary you should get it out of your vocabulary you should never fling that word around like it’s something that you have taken out of your scabbard and it’s a sword for you to get your way you should never think about it like that if you get God’s view on things it’s gonna change because marriage is the most serious institution that God has given a man and a woman and the most intimate relationship a man and one we can have on this side of eternity so we ought to take it seriously for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ we have to take it seriously and one way to do that of course I mentioned some of those ways is we need to get back to the original blueprints all right we are no longer two we’re one so if I try to harm my spouse I’m harming myself and if they try to harm me or they’re harm and they’re harming each other their heart see the thing that’s it it’s like pointing a gun at yourself thinking you’re pointing yet someone else you’re one you’re a unity you need to work together like that and thank the Lord by the word of God and his church and his spirit he gives us everything we need to do that so our marriages could be what they ought to be now I’m gonna leave it right there all right next week I’m gonna pick it up we’re gonna go back to Deuteronomy chapter 24 and then we’re gonna see what are the reasons for divorce and remarriage next week let’s pray Lord thank you thank you Lord for the institution of marriage Lord if anybody’s going to uphold the standard of this institution it has to be your church because the government has given into the world and have made laws that make it hard to define what marriage is and so Lord we’re in the world but we’re not of the world we have your spirit and we have your word and so lord I pray that our marriages would be a testimony against what everybody else is saying and doing with this institution and I pray Lord because I know because you created us in your image that everyone desires to have a good marriage who’s married and it was going to be married they want to strong matters they want to love their wives as men and women want to be respectful and love their wives in that way I know Lord that parents want to have children and they want their children to love you and serve you they want even as they grow old to have grandkids to see them grow and also come to know Christ Lord so there’s many things that are so important about the family and we also know Lord historically when the family falls apart so does the nation so I pray Lord that you would remind us often of your standard and what you said in the beginning so Lord we can think of those things in our marriage and that we can grow with a committed love that puts all the principles into practice so our marriages can be strong and enduring and permanent and Lord could last the rest of our days and even be with testimony and example a pattern and info to the young people that are looking upon our lives and looking for some example to follow I pray that we would be able to offer them a good example I would a marriage ought to be and we know Lord and doing that it’s not going to be perfect but it’s going to be the direction that the Spirit of God takes us to make it the best it can be in this sinful world and so I praise you and thank you for this time in the Word of God continue to remind us of these truths during the week and bring us back next time as we look at the rest of this passage in Christ’s name I pray amen okay as the men come forward we have our Lord’s table this morning so I do want to remind you about some of the things that go along with the Lord’s table we look at the Lord’s table as a memorial feast where we eat the bread and we drink the cup as Christ says do this in remembrance of me we do it once a month the first Sunday of the month we do it now the only Sunday only month of the year that we do it other than the first Sunday is July because usually July 4th is a holiday weekend so we usually do with the second week in July just to protect a little bit the Lord’s table because the Lord’s table is for believers who have trusted the Lord as their Savior and of course are now living obedient lives and have been baptized by immersion those are the ones that should be partaking of the Lord’s table also the Lord’s table is a time that we examine ourselves so we can just just just realizing that we are coming to think upon the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and to search our hearts and our lives and any sin we find in our heart that we would confess those sins and bring them before the Lord and have them cleansed by his blood thank you for that the Lord does that from from John 1:9 and then also that we are to give bear public testimony that we we should do this because Christ died for our sins and and really no one has any any right to participate in this part of the service who does not believe that he is redeemed or she is redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ salvation true salvation must come first and then of course the Lord’s table brings vividly to our minds the sufferings of Jesus Christ in his incarnation who came into this world right in a human body right he was sinless all right and then he went to the cross to die for not his sins but our sins and then to fulfill all the Old Testament sacrifices and shed his blood because without the shedding of blood there’s no washing away of sin so we’re remembering that in the Lord’s table and of course while we do that we look forward to we look back through Calvary and we rejoice at our own salvation our own Redemption and we look forward also to his coming and we rejoice at the prospect of seeing Jesus Christ face to face someday we will and the Lord’s preparing us for that day he’s making us ready for that day he’s setting us apart for that day right that’s what he’s doing and all real genuine Christians want that and they are also doing everything they can in the power of the Spirit to make sure they’re a living holy lives so they’re putting away sin they’re worshiping the Lord the being obedient right and they’re doing it not out of any kind of accumulation of works they’re doing it out of gratitude I’ve thankfulness thank you Lord for saving me thank you Lord for dying in my place thank you Lord that I can call the heavenly father father because of which thank you lord that there’s a place in heaven for me thank you see it’s your you’re filled with gratitude about everything God’s done in your life and he’s doing he’s gonna do and so you can’t get away from it can’t get away from that and that’s the only way to come so let’s take a few minutes prepare our hearts for the Lord’s table and I’ll be back to read a passage of Scripture and then we will we will partake of the elements all right let’s do that right now