Who Ever Invented Marriage and Family?

Please be seated. And now for the second message, again, our pastor, Mr. Jim Tuck.

So, brethren, there are a lot of things in this world that we can hate.

And it seems like that for human beings, that's pretty easy, isn't it? Hating things. You know, there are a lot of things I hate. I hate violence. I hate war. I grew up in a time, by the way, when in fact, you know, war became a multi-colored thing that was on television. You may remember that back in the 60s, they began to, they went to colorization. And you could finally get color TV. Many of you here probably remember when you had the old black and white, the little bitty tube, you know, and then you got the big Sylvania color TV. And the Vietnam War was plastered all over the country, you know, during the 60s. And so you got accustomed to it. We hated, of course, the war. We hated the violence, the blood and the gore. We hate famine. You know, we hate broccoli, you know. Who doesn't hate broccoli? I guess even Herbert Walker Bush hates broccoli. So we hate many things. Let me ask you, though, brethren, do you hate divorce?

Do you hate divorce? You know, often we do not think about hating divorce, do we? If I were to ask you all the things that you hate, I bet that would not be one of them that would come up, usually among most people. But, you know, in the Bible, in the Bible, it actually says that God hates divorce. He hates it. And how do you feel, brethren, about family? Because the Bible indicates that God loves family as strongly as He hates divorce. He loves it a lot. And if we want to be like God, brethren, we have to learn to love marriage, and we have to learn to love family. Do you see what I'm saying here? That if God loves family, if He loves marriage, then we, if we're going to be like God, have to love it as well. We have to love the things that God loves. I think a part of what Mr. Kennedy, of course, was talking about is loving those things that God loves, and putting behind us those things that are of the world and of this society, of which many things we've gotten, you know, from this world. You know, God loves the concept and the intent of family. Now, the world, of course, defines family in many different ways, doesn't it? And, of course, it allows sexual immorality. You have same-sex marriage, and it seems that more and more our children are going to schools. I know it was something that was happening quite rapidly up in the northern California area, and the Supreme Court hasn't made it any easier on people, because, unfortunately, it has pushed people in the direction of acceptance. So it's not uncalled for to see, you know, a man teaching in school and, you know, having his mate come in.

And how disconcerting that must be to, you know, our kids or, you know, a woman with her mate coming in. And who knows what the future is going to be? What man allows? Of course, marriage is something that has been redefined. In fact, we may very well see in the future that men are going to marry animals, be wedded to animals. You know, and really it's highly probable if time goes on that robotics might be so sophisticated that people may marry robots. Now, I know that sounds astounding, but it is very possible in this world of craziness that we see out there. The title of this sermon, split sermon, is, Who Ever Invited Marriage and Family Anyway? Who Came Up with Marriage and Family? You know, if you were to talk to some scientists who don't believe in God, don't have any concept of God, many think that marriage sort of evolved along with human beings. You know, we kind of crawled out of that soupy mess, you know, of the premortal soup that they talk about. And, you know, we evolved from, what is it, from fish to mammals to human beings. And, of course, it all happened just like that. And then finally we came up with the bright idea of getting married, you know. And so man sort of, it all evolved. That's the idea that it seems that more people are leaning toward now if they don't believe in God, and and more and more people do not. They think it was something that homo-sapiens sort of came up with on their own. Well, what is God's concept of what a marriage and a family should be? Because He is the one that invented marriage. He's the one that brought it about. And, you know, He should be able to tell us what His concept was, what His intent was for marriage. Now, let's go over here to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2 over here. And down in verse 21, you know, Job, in this case, Adam was given the job of naming all of the animals, and he went through all of them. You know, remarkable that he had a mind to be able to to do that, to name all the animals. But, you know, one thing he never saw in all the animals that he named, he didn't see anything, any of the animals that looked like him. You know, not the orangutan, not the chimpanzee. And, you know, I'm sure he made God know about that. And, you know, God says, I've got an idea, Adam. And notice here in verse 21, And the LORD caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. And then the rib which the LORD God had taken from him, from the man he made into a woman. And he brought her to the man. And so he said, you know, Adam, wake up. He said, what do you think? And he said, whoa, man! You know, so he was so impressed about how Eve looked. So this is how the idea of woman came about. Women don't know that.

But anyway. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman. Of course, I'm being facetious on that, because she was taken out of the man. And so we notice here that in this scenario here, that God, like a father, brings Eve to Adam, and he's the one that performs the ceremony here, the marriage ceremony. And he says, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And so God joined Adam and Eve together in marriage. So it was God who invented marriage. It was God that brought about marriage, and God did not create Adam and Steve. You know, God did not create Adam and Dolly the sheep. You know, and God created Adam and Eve, husband and wife. No matter what the Supreme Court says, God is the one that invented the institution of marriage, no matter what they determine, whatever they decide, what they allow in this country. Let's go to Matthew chapter 19. You know, we live in a world where people think that if you rely on the Bible, you know, you are fanatic. Well, I am a fanatic. I'm a fanatic. Well, I am a fanatic. I'm a fan of the Bible. And that's what it means. I'm a very good fan of the Bible. I read the Bible a lot. I think I'm among friends who do the same thing. But over here in Matthew chapter 19, when the Pharisees and the scribes had come to Christ, you know, because they, of course, did not treat marriage the way that God intended it to be treated. You know, God never intended people to divorce. That was not in His mind when He, you know, brought about marriage. That was not what He had in mind at all. But by the time Jesus came along, you know, the scribes and the Pharisees allowed divorce for just about anything. And God said He allowed Moses to have this option, you know, and we read that in Deuteronomy chapter 24, because of the hardness of their hearts, of the people. But God had never intended that divorce ever be a part of the plan of marriage between two people. But notice in verse 9 of chapter 19, and Jesus said, He said, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her is divorced commits adultery. And so Jesus gave a definition of what would allow someone to divorce. And there aren't very many reasons. It's not my point to go through that at this time. But God intended marriage to be for life. And God intended that marriage was for life and it be unified and the flesh and the result would be children from that marriage. And the divorce was only permitted where fraud or sexual immorality was involved. Unlike in the world, you know, Christian women in the church, believe and men in the church believe that marriage is for life. I mean, Hollywood has really scandalized marriage in so many ways. Liz Taylor, of course, is dead and Jaja Gabor is dead. But do you realize they had 17 marriages between them? 17 marriages. Now, the men are not any better. Larry King, an old guy, you know, he can bear... he's got to wear you know, suspenders that hold his pants up, but eight times. And some of these people, you know, they have a motto, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, I guess, you know, in their marriages. They keep going. That's their philosophy.

You know, God intended that the physical family mirror the spiritual family. And the spiritual family is an eternal family. And God has in His family, there's a father, there is a mother, there are children that are going to be in His family. And the physical family has, of course, the same thing. Let's go over here to 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3, and verse 1 through 2. The apostle John talks about here that we, in fact, when we are, you know, transformed, and we have it, it hasn't happened to us yet.

We have God's Spirit, but it hasn't happened to us that we've been transformed. But in verses 1 and 2, he says, beloved, I now write to you the second epistle. Oh, that's not it. I'm in Peter, no wonder. But in chapter 3 of 1 John, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God.

So God has children. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not owe Him. But it says, beloved, now are we children. So we are now God's children in His family. And it does not yet appear, it says, what we shall be. But we know when Christ returns, we're going to be like Him because we're going to see Him as He is. So we're going to be like Jesus Christ, Himself is a Son. Jesus Christ was a prototype of what we will be in the future, what we shall be in the future. He's also called the captain of our salvation.

Without Christ, we couldn't even have the option to be able to be a part of God's family without His willingness to lay His life down on the line. And Jesus is an example of a brother, a family member that lays His life down on the line for one another. That we should do that for one another. But He is the captain of our salvation, and God intends He's going to bring many, many sons into glory.

It's going to be into the billions. We'll need every acre that is upon this planet for that time. We don't have any idea how many they're going to be, but it will be into the billions. But remember that three-quarters of the planets may have taken up with water. And I can't imagine what is going to be in the world of Mirel, but when all that water is diminished. I think we're going to have that kind of thing, but it won't be three-quarters of the planet in that time. But God's going to bring many sons into glory.

I'm not going to go to Romans 8, but you would take the opportunity to turn over there that if we are willing, it says in verse 14 on down, if we are willing to suffer like Christ Himself and His life suffered, we're going to be co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Every time I read that, brethren, it boggles my mind. Co-heirs, joint heirs with Christ. You know, imagine what that means. Do you know what that means, brethren? Do we know what it means to be joint heirs with Christ? How many of you have ever been named in a will to receive a portion of a will?

I have it personally, but I'd like to see your hands. Okay, several of you have been named in wills. Now, maybe you've got a half, maybe you've got a third, and if there was a lot of money that was involved, you know, maybe it was into the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you were blessed with.

You know, what if you were maybe the inheritor of a Bill Gates, you know, wealth? What is he worth now? A trillion dollars? I don't know what he's worth. Some say he'll be the first trillionaire, but I think he's worth 80 billion, something like that, 75 billion. Would you like to receive, you know, one hundredth of that? I think you would, wouldn't you? Do you know, brethren, that you're going to inherit a part of the universe? I don't know how much of a part we will inherit. We may get a double portion because we are the firstfruits, you know, in the world tomorrow. But what will it be worth?

I think they had done some research in the solar system, they found an asteroid that if the wealth of the asteroid was brought back to the earth, that it would break the entire economy to pieces. That in just one asteroid, there is more wealth than is on all the planet. So much wealth that is there.

Remember, we are going to inherit not just this solar system in the future, but we'll inherit whatever the universe comprises ahead of us. The billions upon billions of galaxies, and the stars, and the planets, and all that is out there. And God's going to have a very big family, but you're going to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ. And he rules over the earth, by the way, under his father. He acts as more or less a prime minister for the earth. He is in fact in charge and in heaven and earth under his father. But we are joint heirs, and God intended the church brethren to be a church of family, of fathers, of mothers, of brothers, of sisters.

When he calls into the church, we gain brothers and sisters in the church. I've heard people talk about, you know, when they travel across country or around the world, you know, they see people that they know and that they welcome them into their homes. It's like a family member. You go somewhere, you go to Australia, you go to England, whatever, you bump into people you've known for a long time.

It's like you're welcomed into their home like a family. And that's what God intended it to be. Let's go to Mark chapter 10 over here. Mark chapter 10.

In Mark chapter 10, that's why we as God's people need to learn again to show hospitality to people. But in Mark chapter 10 and down in verse 29 here, you know, Peter had asked Jesus Christ, see, we have left all and we followed you. And basically, Peter wanted to know, well, what's in it? And we've left everything behind Jesus and we followed you. Here was the answer that Jesus gave to him. Assurely, verse 29, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. So you're going to get family now and in the future as well. And on top of it, you're going to get eternal life. So that's what God has promised to us, brethren. You know, sometimes when we come into the church, our family will reject us. That does happen sometimes. Maybe in some cases, a man or a woman will come to the church and the mate will say, look, if you're going to be a part of that church, we're finished. And over the years, I have known of people where that's happened and they've lost a mate. And they have found somebody in the church and they have wonderful, happy marriages. I know that if it's based on God's way of life, that two people are joined together as husband and wife, then it's going to be successful. And we know that where people are really applying God's law, it will be successful. Now, there are exceptions where two people get married and it doesn't work out so well. Often times it's because they don't get counsel before they get married. And I've had my share of situations where people have not sought counsel, got married, and they had all kinds of problems. I remember there was a couple up in the one of the areas I passed, I won't even tell you where it is. Not here, by the way, but they were an older couple. They were probably in their mid-70s.

And anyway, they had gone to the feast somewhere. This is back in a time prior to United, when they came along. But they had gone to the feast and they had met each other at the feast. They came back and said, we want to get married.

Anyway, I said, well, that's great. That's wonderful. Do you think you might ought to get some counseling? Oh, we don't need any counsel. That's what they said. Because we've been married before. And we don't really need it. And I said, well, you just met each other two weeks ago. Do you think you ought to... Let's take some time, maybe several months. Let's just talk about it for a while. No, we don't need any counsel. Anyway, that's the last time I talked to them. And maybe a couple of weeks later, they came back and lo and behold, they were married. They'd found somebody back in those days. You could do it. You could find somebody that would marry you that doesn't ask all the right questions. And anyway, they got married. And of course, in those circumstances, you hope, don't you? You hope the marriage works for them. Who in their right mind wants somebody's marriage not to work? Well, what happened is I received a frantic call, you know, from this man's new wife.

It was pretty late at night, as I recall. He said, Mr. Tuck, you've got to come over here.

Right? Well, I say, let's calm down a little bit. Now, what's the problem? And he said, she said, he's going crazy. And well, I said, what is he doing? Well, he's got a butcher knife after me. And that was the result of no counseling.

And you, I don't have to tell you, they didn't, their marriage did not stay together. Didn't work out. But they didn't need counsel. They did not need counsel. I hope that, brethren, you'll be wiser than that. Take some time. Take some time if you find somebody that you are interested in. And even if you are, I don't care if you're 110.

You know, take some time to think about it, to discuss those things, what marriage is. So, what is God's view of marriage? I want to take the remainder of the time to go through this quickly. What God's view of marriage? When God brought Adam and Eve together, He desired a family. So, what is God's view? And, of course, much of what I'm going to tell you is contrary to what the world views about marriage. We live in, again, a topsy-turvy, upside-down world where people have the views that are the exact opposite of what the Bible says.

And these Satan people go to church. How they read the same book that you and I do and come up with something different, I have no idea. I have seven points to maybe expedite this, but number one point. The husband... don't let the tomatoes fly on this one. The husband is to be the head of the family. I might even get bullets on that one. The husband is the head of the family. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 2 through 3. Let's notice this verse over here.

I know it's not 21st century ideology and thought in this world, but this is what the Bible says.

In chapter 11, and here, verses 2 through 3, it says, Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. This is what he taught that was traditional in the church. Is it traditional now? In the church. That's what I ask you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. Now, I know he didn't mean here, by the way, the head of every man only. The head of every woman is Christ, too, in their lives. But then he moves on to marriage. And the head of the woman is man. Of course, he's talking about marriage. And the head of Christ is God. So, here we see that the husband is the head of the family.

The husband is to lead his family, is to lead his wife. Now, that doesn't mean that he's barking orders all the time and expecting immediate obedience. He has a loving authority, a spiritual leadership over the family. So, this is again what God, how he viewed the family. And that has not changed, not since the days of Paul, in fact, and before.

The man, again, is to be the leader. And he's to love his family and lead with love in his family. He ought to listen to not only his wife, but his children, even, to get the input. Any good leader is going to do that. Point number two of how God views marriage, husbands are commanded to love their families. He's commanded to do that, to love their wife, to love their children.

Ephesians 5, verses 25 through 27. You might want to write that down because I won't turn to it. But we are to love our families, our wife and children, as Christ loved the church. That's what it says. And what it says also that he gave himself for the church. In other words, Christ was the greatest sacrifice for the church, his family. So that a father, a husband, must love his wife and children and be the greatest sacrifice. He should be the one who is bringing home the bread in the family, taking care of the family. And again, I know that's contrary to the way the world thinks out there, brethren. But the man is the greatest sacrifice. His family ought to say, you know, of the father, of the husband, he works hard for us.

So God expects that. And God expects, as it says in 1 Peter 3, verse 7, He expects a man to honor his wife and to basically to live with her with understanding. In other words, not somebody that is avoid of understanding of the truth, but someone who understands that we are trying to put behind us the ways of this flesh and begin to forge a new way, which is, of course, after the image of Jesus Christ, who was the greatest sacrifice for the entire church. That a man should treat his wife with gentleness and love as the weaker vessel. That weaker vessel doesn't mean she is weaker physically, necessarily, but that she's priceless to him. What does the Bible say? Who could find a virtuous woman? You know, that her price is greater than fine rubies. It's hard to find a woman that is a virtuous woman. And lo and behold, we've got a whole room full of virtuous women here in this auditorium. And you're sitting next to one of them. You know, in your marriage, that someone who is virtuous, if you're here with your wife, God says that your maid is priceless. But a husband must love his wife. In fact, he should love his wife and his family as he loves himself. It's important to put your family ahead of your own needs, in fact, to be willing to do that, to sacrifice. Point number three. Wives should not be afraid to submit to their own husbands.

Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 3 over here. 1 Peter chapter 3. Now, here a woman is told, and here in the first few verses of 1 Peter, it says, wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands. You know, that's not to every man, by the way. You know, any more than we do from a spiritual perspective of being submissive to one another in the fear of God and being humble toward one another, but be submissive to your own husbands. That even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives. When they observe your chaste conduct, coupled or accompanied by fear, the fear of God, of respect as well as what that word fear means, do not let your adornment be merely outward. He talked about that it should be from the inside. Now, that doesn't mean a woman should take care of herself. You know, it means that the beauty should emanate from within.

No woman, of course, should not go overboard and be gaudy in her dress. As we see, a lot of women are in the world today. You wonder if you took a ball peen hammer and you, for some women, tapped their face, it would shatter. Because the makeup is just too deep. But this is not what God intends. We are made up to be something we're not. But it is interesting that there's a movement to become more natural looking in society now. But going on, it mentions now, it says, speaking about letting it be the incorruptible beauty of the gentle and quiet spirit of a woman that is precious in God's sight. Verse 5, For in this manner and former times, the holy women who trusted in God, trusted in God, when you get married, you have to trust in God, who also adored themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. That's why I like my wife to call me Lord Jim, by the way. I'm just kidding about that. But I don't think she would do that. She'd probably call me Lord Lawson. You know, that's my first name. But anyway, as you know, I've talked about Lord Jim for many years. If you saw the old movie about Lord Jim. But anyway, going on, wives, again, should not be afraid to submit to their own husbands. Point number three. Point number four, fathers are to be a major part of their children's upbringing and spiritual education. You don't see that a lot in the world today. It seems like the father's in the background. He's back in the background, and it's mom that is doing all the work.

I would dare say, if you went to a PTA meeting, that probably it would only be mothers that would be there for their children's education. Maybe in some cases it has to be that way, because the father might be working. But in cases where a man can be involved, it's good for them to be involved in their child's education. But the important thing is the spiritual education of your children. And a husband needs to be involved in that.

You know, Ephesians 6 and verse 4 says, And you fathers do not provoke your children to rap, but bring them up in the training, in the admonition of the Lord. It's like the Scriptures over in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 9 talks about, you know, that you are to talk to your kids when you rise up in the morning, until the time the sun goes down, and the time you go to bed. You're communicating with your kids all the time. Fathers are, again, admonished not to provoke their children to anger. You can push them away. If you're too hard on kids, you know, there's a time where we have to say, brethren, let's let children be children, okay? I mean, when you were growing up, did you ever make any mistakes, by the way? I think we all did, didn't we? So the fathers are not to provoke their children, as it says in Colossians 3, 21, lest they become discouraged. A father needs to be involved in discipline.

And I would say appropriate for the situation, appropriate for the age of a child. The book of Proverbs, by the way, tells us, he who spares his rod, and he means this figuratively, by the way, hates his son. But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

And also in Proverbs 19-18, it says, chasing your son while there is hope. And do not set your heart on his destruction. You know, don't get to the point where you say it's at a lost cost. You have to keep working with your children. And I think that probably you have to keep working with them until you probably die. Maybe they come to you, and you know, they're walking with a cane. You're still working with them.

We see over in the book of Hebrews, you know, where God says that he chastens every son he receives. Every son. And you know, we endure what our physical fathers do, don't we? I remember when my father was, when I was growing up, my father administered some corporal punishment to me. I think I've told you about my problem of when I was in the second grade, feeling my oats, I guess, and you know, this newfound freedom. Because we had to walk to school. It was maybe a mile to where I went to school. And anyway, I would go my buddy's place after school, and I would come home about two hours late. My mother, you know, would get up on me, and I'm sure she spanked me somehow. But you know, mother spankings don't really tend to affect some boys. Maybe, you know, it's like, go ahead, mom, you know. But my mother, one thing that she would tell me is, your dad's going to get you. You know, it's like Bill Cosby, you know, when he comes home, and you know, his wife says, he's upstairs. And anyway, she said, I want you to kill the boy. And Bill Cosby, you know, he's kind of funny, the story of what Bill Cosby does. And he's saying, oh, oh, great, I get to kill him, you know. And I'm not sure if it was the one time where he says to his son, I brought you into this world, and I could take you out. But my father, when I came home from school late, one day he was at home, and I would sneak up the back steps of our home. There was a screen door there, and I would quietly open the screen door and sneak in the house. Nobody, of course, mom knew I was late. But at this particular occasion, my dad was there. And I could see in his face he meant business. And he had a belt. Back in those days, kids, you know, a belt was used. And my dad spanked me that day. And not that he hurt me, per se, but that made an impression on me.

And I decided I'd rather talk from then on about problems. And furthermore, I was going to start listening. So anyway, certainly true. And don't give up on your kids, though. And again, I'm not advocating that kind of corporal punishment for a child. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, verbally, time out type situations, or other ways of dealing with it. Maybe we need a topic discussion on that sometime in the future. But God sometimes takes us to the woodhouse, doesn't he? The woodshed. And He administers some punishment to us.

Point number five. So point number four, fathers are involved. Point number five, mothers have a key role in rearing the children. In Titus, over here, in the book of Titus, notice what Paul writes in Titus here.

Some beautiful words, really. Not just for mothers, but for all of us. It sort of ties it all up in a very neat package here, where Paul is writing to Titus in chapter two and down in verse four. And notice it says, speaking of the older woman, that they admonish the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. That there be a wholesome atmosphere in a family to show forth again the way of the future to the world, that the word of God, the way of God, not be blasphemed. And this is likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded. And in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, and incorruptibility. So for young men, you know, they are to have integrity about them. And of course, for young women, they are, again, to rear their children properly. The young man ought to be sober, not have a, again, a party kind of a spirit, but focus on those things that are important. Point number six.

And, you know, a point that I think, again, is lost in this time where it seems Satan's broadcast to the world, his wavelength that has gone out has created a generation of rebellion, not just of children, but among most all people, it seems, have a sort of that spirit about them. But in the Colossians 3 and verse 20, it says, children, speaking of children, obey your parents because this is well pleasing to God. You know, our young people, we have some wonderful, fine young people in God's church. If you want to please God, that's what God says. Obey your parents. Listen to your parents.

Jesus himself. You know, when he was 12 years of age, submitted to his parents. Here, he was the creator of the entire universe, and he submitted to his parents. And, you know, it talks about, in Proverbs 31, by the way, that the Proverbs 31 woman, that her children rise up to praise her. You know, so young people, God wants you to obey your parents and to love your parents. And, you know, we are all children as well. It doesn't matter how old you get, you still should love your parents. You should respect your parents and honor your parents. It doesn't say in the Bible, by the way, parents honor your children. Does it? I mean, if you find the Scripture, I'd like to see it. But, obviously, we're to love our children. We treat them, you know, with kindness and love. But God says that children should honor their parents. Now, we live in a world where, again, natural affection is dying. It really is. In fact, people don't even want to communicate with each other. Point number seven. Point number seven. I asked the question, what was the intent of marriage? When God presented Eve to Adam, what was the intent? Well, let's go over here to Malachi chapter two. Malachi chapter two.

But here in the book of Malachi, of course, you see this in the book of Malachi and the tribes of Judah, which would have been chiefly the ones that this would have been addressed to at that particular time. But we know this is a book that is intended for us too, and for all of Israel, for that matter. But in Malachi, in chapter two, notice this, God chasten the people at that time, where it mentions in verse 13 here. And he says, and this is the second thing that you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying.

So he does not regard the offering anymore. You know, when we begin to turn from God and turn to the world of the societies out here, God does not regard our offerings. He doesn't regard our prayers as he did before. I don't care how much weeping and wailing we can do before God. And we know to do good, and God, of course, would be at fault, in fact, regarding what we said. If we knew what we were supposed to be doing, sometimes we expect God to be there no matter what we do. But sometimes God withholds blessings because of what we do. He says, "...nor receive it with good will from your hands." Yet you say, for what reason? Because, and here's the answer that God gives, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth.

"...with whom you have dealt treacherously." He's talking about the marital relationship here, brethren, where the husband again was dealing treacherously with the wife of his youth. Yet she is your companion, your wife by covenant. You know, when you become one flesh, when you begin to beat up on your wife, you begin to hurt your wife, you're really hurting yourself. What a tragedy that we see this again happening with people that, if they don't physically abuse their wives, they can mentally do so, which sometimes can be far worse.

But did He not make them one? I want to go back to Genesis 2 we just read. Of course, we know the answer to that. Having a remnant of the Spirit. And why one? Why one? Why marriage? Why did Adam and Eve get together to begin with?

You know, why is it that God has all these rules about marriage and family? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, your attitude, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.

You know, God says He hates divorce for this reason because it's going to produce a godly seed. God desires, brethren, the whole family, including the children.

And, brethren, a loving home with a father and mother and children, and all obeying God, seeking the kingdom of God as a family is what God desires. Whole families seeking God. Seeking God. You know, God wants to do this. God wants to do this. He indeed does want to leave it ashes the world's ways. He wants to leave it behind. He wants to forge a new way to have a new norm in society. And that norm, brethren, is the spiritual family of God. That's the way it's going to be in the kingdom of God, brethren. It's going to be the typical millennial family. And that, brethren, is what God intended for all humanity.

And that's what God intended for all humanity.