Sermon on the Mount

Well, brethren, I've asked this of you several times, probably six other times. Do you want to be sure that your spiritual house is built on a firm foundation? Do you want to make sure that your spiritual house, your spiritual temple, is built on the rock on our Savior, Jesus Christ? Do you want to be prepared for whatever comes in the future? As Mr. Robinson said in the sermonette, we do have to wage spiritual warfare. And the better prepared we are, the better we will be able to wage that warfare. And the more successful we're going to be in fighting that warfare, God wants us to learn to become like Him, to resist Satan, knowing that Satan will flee from us when we do that, and that we will be given victory over sin, that we will be overcomers, and that we will be given the keys to eternal life. So it is important that we read and we study Christ's words, especially what He said in the Sermon on the Mount, because it's a compilation of many of the most important points that Christ had to make during His ministry. I know I've benefited greatly from studying into these verses that we've been going through. This is the seventh sermon so far in this series on the Sermon on the Mount, and it's helped me personally understand things better. I've been in the church a long time, but you get a greater depth when you continue to study these words and realize that there's always something to learn. There's a greater depth that we can all have spiritually. So today we're going to continue Christ's foundational teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Now, last time we talked about the importance of taking even drastic measures to be overcomers, to do whatever is necessary to keep Satan from influencing us to do evil. We talked about that mouse trap. Remember that sometimes we stick our nose down into deeper and deeper until we get ourselves into real spiritual trouble, and we have to use wisdom. We have to learn to begin resisting Satan quickly and not wait until he has developed a stronghold in our lives. So we talked a lot about that and the importance of resisting Satan and winning the battle that we have to face on a regular basis. Now let's go to Matthew 5, and we will continue in verse 31. So last time we obviously read verse 30. So in Matthew 5, let's just go back to verse 31. I'm sorry, verse 30. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And we talked about how primarily Christ was talking figuratively. He doesn't want us to cut our limbs off or to gouge our eyes out, but he does want us to take drastic spiritual measures so that we do not allow Satan to develop these strongholds in our lives. We have to fight back, and we have to use God's Holy Spirit to fight back and to wage warfare.

We'd read earlier that even if we look at a woman to lust for her, we've committed adultery with her in our heart. Try showing the importance of the Spirit of the Law and going beyond the letter to live by the Spirit. We talked earlier about how we murder people in our hearts when we harbor hatred and resentment toward them. So we could take each of the Ten Commandments, and we can learn to live by the Spirit of those Commandments, going far beyond the letter and the importance that we should do that. Now, Christ is going to continue in regard to faithfulness. In verse 31, he says, Furthermore, it has been said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. So Christ is actually looking back into the Old Testament, stating that some have said, give a certificate of divorce. But I say to you, Christ says in verse 32, that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. So it is important that we understand what Christ is saying here.

If we think back to Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve were obviously the couple that were created first. They were the ones who were married first. And we know that the Scripture says that they were to become one flesh. The two of them were to become one flesh. And Christ also says in another place that what God has brought together, let not man put asunder. So it's very clear that the commitment that we make when we marry someone is to be a commitment for life. That's what God intended. That's what God wants. And he wants two people to work together to ensure that that happens. Now we know that that does break down. We know that divorce happens. But what does God say about divorce in Malachi chapter 2?

Malachi chapter 2 in verse 10, Scripture says, Have we not all one Father? God is our Father, every one of us. We're all created in God's image, created in His likeness. Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another? Why do we do that? The question is asked. By profaning the covenant of the fathers. Why do we profane God's covenant? Why do we defile the covenant that we made and that our fathers made going back to Abraham? A covenant was made with God. The children of Israel made a covenant with God to obey Him, to serve Him, to do what is pleasing to God. But consistently, mankind has profaned this covenant that God wants to have with us, a covenant of faithfulness. He goes on to show that Judah has dealt treacherously, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which He loves. There is such a thing as spiritual adultery. And when mankind turns against God and is unfaithful to Him, in the very real sense, we're committing adultery. We're going after other gods. We're committing idolatry. God is certainly not pleased with that type of conduct, that type of behavior. He wants us to learn what faithfulness is all about.

And if we drop down to verse 14, "...yet you say, for what reason?" You know, why is God not happy with the sacrifices that the children of Israel were continuing to try to make, that the house of Judah was continuing to make? Why was God not happy with those expressions of worship when they were doing so many things so badly against God in His ways and His laws? He says, for what reason does God not regard the offering that you bring? Why doesn't God regard it? Why is He not happy? Why is He not pleased? Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one? Again, referring back to the union that a man and a wife is to have together, did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why was He not? Because He seeks godly offspring. God wants children that will learn His ways and that will learn to obey Him and follow Him. He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your Spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of His youth.

If you don't deal treacherously with the wife of your youth, hopefully you won't deal treacherously with the wife of your old age. You will learn to be faithful, is what He is saying. We need to be faithful to one another from start to finish. Verse 16, for the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce. It's very plain that God hates divorce. For it covers one's garment with violence. I've never seen what I would consider a happy divorce, a healthy divorce. There's always problems with divorce. There is violence that comes through divorce. Therefore, take heed to your Spirit that you do not deal treacherously. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, in what way have we wearied Him, in that you say, everybody who does evil is good in the sight of the Eternal. No, we should see sin for what it is. Sin is the transgression of God's law. God hates divorce. God wants us to stay together as husband and wife. He wants us to learn to work out our issues, to be able to make peace, and to be able to do those things that are right and good and pleasing to Him. Obviously, it takes two people in a marriage to really make this work. If one is dead set against this happening, it's not going to work. It's going to fall apart. So, it takes two people working together to make a good marriage and to make a marriage that lasts and is pleasing to God. So, we should be honest with ourselves. We should look at our marriages. We should ask ourselves, is our marriage pleasing to God? Are we setting a good example in our marriage? Are we setting a proper example? Or, could our marriage even be headed toward divorce? Or, if it isn't divorce, is it very unhealthy? If it is, then we need to try to change and to do what God tells us to do in His Word. God truly does hate divorce. Now, during the time of Christ, the institution of marriage, basically in the whole world, was in a horrible state. We embarkly on page 150 of his first volume of his commentary on the book of Matthew, says, there is no time in history when the marriage bond stood in greater peril of destruction than in the days when Christianity first came into the world. At that time, the world was in danger of witnessing the almost total breakup of marriage and the collapse of the home. Now, theoretically, there was no higher approach to marriage than that of the Jewish nation at this time. The world was in bad shape. In the Jewish nation, it was expected that men would marry and have children and a family, except for one reason, and that was to devote his whole time to the study of the law. Otherwise, they were expected to be married and to have children, to have family. A man who refused to marry and have a family was looked down upon. But the marital state had deteriorated to the point that in many cases, Jewish or Israelites men were divorcing their wives for almost any reason at the time of Christ. Now, at that time, women were looked at primarily as property by society. Women were not treated the way they should have been treated. They were considered a thing in the Jewish oral law, at least to some degree. A woman was at the absolute disposal of her father or husband. She had virtually no legal rights at all. According to Barclay, a woman said the rabbinic law may be divorced with or without her will, but a man only with his will.

So, if a woman wanted to divorce his wife, he could do it. It didn't matter what the wife thought or what she believed. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 24, and let's consider what's written here in the Old Testament. Evidently, this is what Christ was referring to about giving someone a certificate of divorce.

Chapter 24 of the book of Deuteronomy, verse 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 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 is 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 Eternal, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. So the crux of the problem from these verses was in interpreting the word some uncleanness. Some uncleanness. If someone, a man, did not find favor in his wife because he found some uncleanness in her, it says, the crux of the problem was how people interpreted this. What did this mean? Some uncleanness. Now Strong's Concordance has the word translated uncleanness in the New King James as meaning literally nudity. It's definitely talking about sexual immorality. Figuratively, nakedness, shame, or uncleanness. Something to do with sexual immorality. It's pretty clear that that's what this was talking about. But back at the time of Christ, there were two main schools of thought in regard to Jewish law. One was from the school of Shammai. You probably heard that. If you've been in the church very long, there was a school of Shammai, S-H-A-M-M-A-I, and it took the strictest, more severe, austere approach in most matters. The Pharisees followed along this line of thinking. Divorce was highly frowned upon, and Shammai defined these words, some indecency, as unchastity and nothing but unchastity, or sexual immorality, adultery. They basically said, let a wife be as mischievous as the wife of Ahab. Remember what Ahab's wife's name was? Jezebel. Let a wife be as mischievous as the wife of Ahab. She cannot be divorced unless she is sexually immoral, adulterous, unchaste. I don't know if Jezebel was or wasn't. I kind of thought she probably was, but maybe she wasn't. She was a mess in a lot of other ways, for sure.

Shammai took an approach that actually is closer to the Bible, much closer to the Bible. In this particular case, I'm not saying they were always right, because they weren't, and they went overboard oftentimes. But the school of Hillel was much more liberal in their approach to most things, and they defined these two words in the broadest possible way. Now I'd like to read from page 152 in the commentary by William Barclay.

He says, on the other hand, the school of Hillel defined some indecency in the widest possible way. They said that it meant that a man could divorce his wife if she spoiled his dinner by putting too much salt in his food. If she went in public with her head uncovered, if she talked with men in the streets, if she was a brawling woman, if she spoke disrespectfully of her husband's parents in his presence, if she was troublesome or quarrelsome. A certain Rabbi Akiba said that the phrase, if she find no favor in his sight, meant that a man might divorce his wife if he found a woman whom he considered to be more attractive than his wife.

Human nature, being such as it is, I'm continuing to read from Barclay, human nature being such as it is, it is easy to see which school would have the greater influence. In the time of Jesus, divorce had grown easier and easier so that a situation had arisen in which girls were actually unwilling to marry because marriage was so insecure. When Jesus said this, he was not speaking as some theoretical idealist. He was speaking as a practical reformer. He was seeking to deal with a situation in which the structure of family life was collapsing and in which national morals were becoming ever more lax.

So that's the backdrop from the Jewish perspective. But the Roman approach to marriage also had a profound impact and effect upon the world scene at Christ's time. Of course, they were subject to the Romans. The Romans had conquered the land. What about marriage amongst the Romans? Now, a real tragedy had occurred in regard to marriage and family, in regard to what it was like at the very foundations of early Roman history.

Let me again read from this book to give you an idea of what the situation was like at Christ's time. The history of the development of the marriage situation amongst the Romans is the history of tragedy. The whole of Roman religion and society was originally founded on the home. The basis of the Roman Commonwealth was the Patriarch of Poteztas, the Father's power. The Father had literally the power of life and death over his family. A Roman son never came of age so long as his father was alive. He might be a council, have a high position in the government. He might have reached the highest honor and office the state could offer, but so long as his father was alive, he was still within his father's power.

To the Roman, the home was everything. The Roman matron was not secluded like her Greek counterpart. She took her full part in life. Marriage, said Modestinus, the Latin jurist, is a lifelong fellowship of all divine and human rights. Now, prostitutes, of course, there were, but they were held in contempt. And to associate them with them was a dishonorable thing.

There was, for instance, a Roman magistrate who was assaulted in a house of ill fame and who refused to prosecute or go to law about the case because to do so would have been to admit that he had been in such a place. So there was a great stigma to be involved outside of marriage with prostitutes or with that sort of thing.

So high was the standard of Roman morality that for the first five hundred years of the Roman Commonwealth, there was not one single recorded case of divorce. Imagine that, five hundred years, not a single recorded case of divorce. That's a long time. That's twice as long as our country. There was three... well, not quite, but it's a long time. You know, our country hasn't been around nearly that long.

The first man to divorce his wife, Vespurious Carvillius, Ruga, in the year 234 BC. And he did so because she was childless and he desired a child. Then there came the Greeks. Okay, so we're going to do some contrasting of the Romans and the Greeks. In the military and the imperial sense, Rome conquered Greece, but in the moral and the social sense, Greece conquered Rome. By the second century BC, Greek morals had begun to infiltrate into Rome and the descent was catastrophic.

Divorce became as common as marriage. Seneca speaks of women who were married to be divorced and who were divorced to be married. He tells of women who identified the years not by the names of the councils, but by the names of their husbands. Juvenile writes, is one husband enough for Iberina? Sooner will you prevail upon her to be content with one eye. He cites the case of a woman who had eight husbands in five years.

Marshall cites the case of a woman who had ten husbands. I mentioned in my last sermon that I knew of a church member whose mother had been married ten times. He was older when he came in the church, but his mother had not set a very good example for him throughout the years. She had been married ten times, and that's in our modern society today. A Roman orator, Matillus Numiticus, made an extraordinary speech. He said, if Romans were possible to love without wives, we would be free from trouble.

But since it is the law of nature that we can neither live pleasantly with them, nor at all without them, we must take thought for the continuance of the race rather than for our own brief pleasure. Marriage had become nothing more than an unfortunate necessity. There was a cynical Roman jest. Marriage brings only two happy days. The day when the husband first claps his wife to his breast, and the day when he lays her in the tomb. Pretty sad commentary on marriage and upon women, wives and husbands, too, for taking that approach.

Berkeley continues to say, To such a past did things come that special taxes were levied on the unmarried, and the unmarried were prohibited from entering into inheritances. Special privileges were given to those who had children, for children were regarded as a disaster. The very law was manipulated in an attempt to rescue the necessary institution of marriage. So they were so messed up in that society, it's unbelievable.

So it's no wonder Christ talked some about divorce and marriage and remarriage. The Greek approach to marriage also had a profound impact, as I mentioned from what Barclay said. It had a huge impact on the world seen at Christ's time. Marriage among the Greeks was such that infidelity and sexual relations outside marriage were so common, and accepted that they brought no stigma whatsoever. In general, nearly every man in Greek society was having relations outside marriage. It was the norm. It was expected to have a concubine or another woman on the side, a mistress. It was the normal and expected way of life for Greek men. The famous Greek Demosthenes said, we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure. Speaking of Greek men, we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure. We have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation. We have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately, and for having a faithful guarding for all of our household affairs. Going back to Berkeley on page 153, I'm taking the time to read a lot of this because I want you to see that this is documented scholarly work. It's not something I'm making up. Page 153.

The Greek view of marriage was an extraordinary paradox. The Greek demanded that the respectable woman should live such a life of seclusion that she could never even appear on the street alone, and that she did not even have her meals in the apartments of the men. She had no part even in social life. From his wife, the Greek demanded the most complete moral purity. For himself, he demanded the utmost immoral license. That's called a double standard. To put it for himself, he demanded—I'm sorry—to put it bluntly, the Greeks married a wife for domestic security but found their pleasure elsewhere. Even Socrates said, Is there anyone to whom you entrust more serious matters than to your wife? And is there anyone to whom you talk less?

Varus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius in the Imperial Power, was blamed by his wife for associating with other women. His answer was that she must remember that the name of wife was a title of dignity, not of pleasure. So, then, in Greece, an extraordinary situation arose. The Temple of Aphrodite at Corinth. My wife and I had the privilege of going to Corinth, and we went to their museum, and we saw evidence of this very thing that we're going to talk about here. The Temple of Aphrodite at Corinth had a thousand priestesses who were sacred courtesans. So, they brought religion into it. They were sacred courtesans. They came down to the streets of Corinth that evening time so that it became a proverb, Not every man can afford a journey to Corinth. This amazing alliance of religion with prostitution can be seen in an almost incredible way in the fact that Solon was the first to allow the introduction of prostitutes into Athens and the building of brothels. And with the prophets of the brothels, a new temple was built to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The Greeks saw nothing wrong in the building of a temple with the proceeds of prostitution. Why should they? It was part of their religion. And I could go on and read more. I think I'll just let it go with that. There's much more that could be read. But there was a tremendous double standard going on in the Greek world when it came to wives and sexual immorality and mistresses and that sort of thing. It was disgusting. It was an abomination. God hated that. We should hate it as well. Now, let's go back to Matthew chapter 5 and continue reading here. But let's think again... well, let's not quite end there yet.

Knowing what we just talked about and realizing that God truly does hate divorce, we should take special care to treat our mates with the utmost honor and respect. Husband treating their wives in a way that God intended. Wives treating their husbands. Having respect and love toward each other. That's what God intended for us, to set an example for our children and for the world, frankly. And really what Christ was saying was remarkable at that time. To say that if you looked at a woman, you committed adultery. And to talk about divorce and remarriage. Now, he mentions that sexual immorality would be the only case for remarriage. But the Scripture also talks about an unbelieving wife who departs from a husband. Or vice versa. It could be either unbeliever, the wife or the husband. Either way, if one departed and abandoned their husband or wife, then that could be another reason that it might be possible to remarry. But there are very few reasons. Of course, physical abuse and extremes like that would show a person really isn't converted if they're abusing their wife or their husband in that way. But we should take very seriously the institution of marriage. It's a sacred institution. And we are to be the ones that are setting the right example for all those around us. It's so important that we do the right thing when it comes to our wives and husbands, and that we strive to have the utmost standards in our marriage. Godly standards. Now, back to Matthew 5.

Matthew 5, verse 33. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oath to the LORD. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes, and your no be no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. So here Jesus Christ tells us not to make oaths. Now, some people are confused by this, because they believe that the Old Testament says it's fine to make oaths. So let's go through a number of scriptures and see what Christ is saying. Let's first go to the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, verse 7. Should we make oaths, or should we not make oaths? And if we are going to make oaths, how should we make an oath? Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. It's important that we understand what God says in one of His commandments, the Third Commandment. Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. You shall not take the name of the Lord the Eternal your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, who takes his name in vain. Now, actually, this commandment has a lot to do with the taking of oaths and swearing falsely, not keeping oaths, that sort of thing. Keep that in mind as we go to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 12.

Leviticus chapter 19, verse 12. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, God says, instructs the children of Israel. You shall not swear by my name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God, I am the Eternal. Now, obviously, we're told not to lie, not to swear falsely. There's even another commandment that also speaks of not lying. And also, if one was to make an oath, they would be expected to keep that oath. You shall not swear by my name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God, I am the Eternal. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 23 now, and consider what is said here in regard to oaths and vows. Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 21. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it. If you're going to make a vow to God, yeah, you better pay that vow. If you promise something to God, obviously, you should fulfill that vow. For the Lord your God will surely require it of you.

And it would be sent to you to break that vow. That would be a sin, a heinous sin, to vow to God, and then to break it. But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sent to you. If you don't vow, then you don't have to worry about sinning in that way. Sometimes people make vows rashly. You know, they make a vow with good intentions, perhaps, but they don't have the character to follow through on that vow. Much better not to make a vow than to make one and break it. Right? So, we're taking God's name in vain if we make a vow to Him, and we don't keep it. We don't observe it. Or if we swear by God and by His name, then we're sinning against God. We're not to take His name lightly, or to take it lightly. Now, Deuteronomy chapter 10, let's go there for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 20, "...you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oath in His name." That's basically saying, if you were to take an oath in God's name, you better hold fast to it. You better keep it.

He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand. He miraculously rescued them from slavery in Egypt. So, we should be very careful how we interact with God and what we say to Him, the kind of vows that we may make. If we're going to make a vow, again, we better keep it. Now, Numbers chapter 30, you can go to that later. It's a whole chapter on vows and the importance of keeping vows. And it speaks about a daughter or a wife who could be overruled by her father or her husband if they determined that she had uttered a vow rashly. I mean, that's basically what that whole chapter is about. Now, in Jesus' time, there were two problems, essentially, with vowing. Two major problems with swearing or taking an oath. One is referred to in the commentary by Barclay as frivolous swearing, and the other one as evasive swearing. Frivolous swearing was when a person would take an oath where no oath was necessary or proper. It was far too common for people to use phrases or euthanisms like, by my life, I promise to do this or that, or by my head, or by God himself. Those types of things, that was making a promise in a frivolous sort of way. That was taking God's name in vain, going beyond what should have been said. Christ said, let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Anything beyond that is of the evil one. So, we should not make any kind of vow or promise rashly or frivolously. God does not appreciate that type of behavior, that way of behaving or living. The other was evasive swearing. And here they divided oaths into two classes, those that were absolutely binding. An oath that was absolutely binding, and another one that was not so binding. But I thought an oath was binding. Well, yeah, it should be binding in all cases, but they had elusive swearing. So, if God's name were used, then it would be considered absolutely binding. If you make a vow or a promise and use God's name, then you absolutely could not break it. But if you swore by anything else, then you could break it. If you swore by the hair on your head, then it was okay to break it. So, it's probably difficult for us to really wrap our minds around what kind of games they were trying to play here, but maybe not so much because we try to play various games ourselves.

You see, God is involved in all that we do. A promise is a promise. God is involved in any promise that you make. God says, liars will not be in His kingdom. Liars will not inherit the kingdom of God. So, never promise something lightly. If you make a promise, do your very best to keep it. And if you don't, you better repent and not be so rash in the future to make promises you're not going to keep. We should regard all promises as sacred if we remember that all promises are made before God in His presence. Our godly character should be seen in the promises that we make. In God's kingdom, no oaths will be necessary, as we will always tell the truth. There will be no lies told in God's kingdom. Once everyone is changed to spirit, and we're spirit beings, then there will be no lying. There will be no sinning going on at that time. But now, we should be very careful how we use our tongue. We should not enter into promises rashly. Be careful what you promise your wife, or you promise your husband, because they will hold it to you. They will remember what you promised, and you should be quick to keep your promises. As quick as possible, anyway.

So, we should consider the character that we have developed and the character that we built. A person shouldn't have to make an oath. If I tell you something, you should have faith that I'm going to do it. I don't have to swear by the little hair that I have on my head that I will keep it. I should keep it just because I'm striving to be a man of God. You should be the same type of person, a man or woman of God. Your word should be your bond. So, there's no need to go beyond just saying yes or no. There's no reason to do that, so we should be careful not to go beyond that. It says anything beyond that is of the devil. It's upstate in the devil.

So, today we've covered some very important principles of living from the Sermon on the Mount. Let me just go through five lessons that I hope we've learned. First of all, God hates divorce. So should we. We should hate divorce. Sometimes divorce will occur if there's some sort of unfaithfulness in a marriage. Genuine, godly repentance and true forgiveness may be able to overcome such obstacles in a marriage, but not always. Unfortunately, not always, because sometimes people go too far and it's not within a person to forgive or to repent, perhaps. So, God hates divorce and so should we. Secondly, one should not remarry unless there are biblical grounds to do so. Lest other be cause to sin, as well as the one who remarries unlawfully. Maid should always be treated with the utmost love and respect, and yet too often familiarity does breed contempt. And I see that far too often in marriages where people have become contemptuous toward their mate. Perhaps they become hypercritical of their mate, or perhaps, you know, maybe their mate has given them a lot more reason than they should to feel that way. So, it's very important that we live by God's laws in our marriage, keeping all the commandments, not just in the letter, but in the Spirit, being faithful men and women of God.

Thirdly, do not allow the permissive immorality of today's society to rub off on you. We live in a very permissive age, as well. When Christ lived, it was a permissive age. What I read about the Greeks and the Romans and even the Jewish people, you know, it was disgraceful. Truly disgraceful what was going on. But what goes on in our society is truly disgraceful. What people have come to accept in terms of fornication before marriage, sexual immorality before marriage, it's pathetic. And be careful not to allow that to rub off on you. God talks about virgins in the Bible. Virgins are precious in God's sight. There's precious few virgins these days, but that doesn't mean it's right. That doesn't mean that's the way we should be. We should be men or women, boys or girls. There's not a double standard from God. God expects the same standard from each of us. Boys, girls, men, women, same standard.

The sexual norms of this day and age are completely against God's standards. They're completely against them. What's normal today in terms of just what is so acceptable before marriage, during marriage, after marriage, you know, it's all falls so far short of God's standard. And then you've got homosexuality, which also obviously falls far short of God's standard and God's teaching.

So don't allow the permissive immorality of today's society to rub off on you in any way.

Fourthly, be careful not to break the Third Commandment. Don't take the name of God in vain. Don't ever take God's name in vain. God's name is sacred. God is sacred. We should not take Him or His name in vain. We should never use it in frivolous ways or elusive ways to try to get around something. And number five, keep your promises, but do not make vows. Simply say yes or no, and then be faithful to your word. Be faithful to your word. It's a sad society where people feel like they have to make vows or someone's not going to believe them.

So today we've covered quite a bit of ground. We have a lot going on after church today. I also want to allow some time for fellowship. So I think I've spoken long enough. Rather, if you want to build your spiritual house on the rock, then take heed to what Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount. Take heed to what He says. And in the weeks ahead, we will study in detail Christ's instruction that does lead to peace and contentment and, ultimately, to eternal life. And when I get through this series, and I'm sure I will eventually, we would have talked a great deal about Christian living and our conduct and how to live. Then I plan on talking about prophecy and other things. Because I would like to do a series of sermons on prophecies from Revelation, from Daniel. So we'll get to some of that, which some of you might call more exciting stuff. But this is the nuts and bolts. This tells you how to live. If you don't get this right, it's not going to matter about the prophecies because you're going to be on the wrong side of those prophecies. So I would say pay attention to the Sermon on the Mount first and foremost, and we'll get to the prophecy.