Sacredness of Marriage

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances. And you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. I want us to read here from the Word of God, Matthew chapter 19, verses 1 through 6. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee. and came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? for every cause. And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read? that he which made them at the beginning made them male. and female.

And God said, for this cause, Shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife? And they twain, or they two, shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more twain or two. but one flesh What therefore God hath joined together, Let not man Put a sum there.

Now I won't talk to you. about the sacredness of marriage. We see marriage as we know it, as God intended it. to be unraveling and experts tell us that soon Half of all children will grow up in single-parent homes. And most mothers will work outside The home.

Much of this problem is caused by divorce. In the first three verses of our chapter, the matter of divorce comes up. And the disciples As Jesus. Can a man just divorce his wife? for any reason and Jesus in answering that question tells us about what marriage is intended to be.

One man For one woman till death do them part. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother. and cleave unto his wife, They twain shall be one flesh, and what God hath therefore joined together. Let not man Put Yeah. Divorce is an American tragedy.

Because divorced parents. produce broken children. and broken children. Produce Broken homes. Which produce?

broken children, which produce broken homes, which produce Broken choke. It is a vicious cycle. God has said in His word in Malachi chapter 2 and verse 16. that he hates divorce. God literally hates.

Divorce.

Now I know that the intellectuals of our day Have different ideas. They have taught us that sex between unmarried people. Really is incidental. It causes no moral problems. And you young people in the choir, let me tell you, God absolutely, totally forbids any kind of sexual liaison.

outside of the bonds of holy matrimony. We've been taught also that homosexuality It can be accepted as normal. what they call today an alternative lifestyle. We've been told today that unmarried motherhood really poses no serious problems. And we've been taught that marriage is not sacred.

Because really nothing is sacred. And our great commandment today is, thou shalt not be. Judgmental. And so the new God in America is the God of tolerance. I believe it's time that somebody spoke up for the family and for family faithfulness.

So I want you to see, first of all, that real marriage Did not come from the swamps of immorality or by evolution, but marriages are made by heaven. Look in verse 4. And he answered, these are the words of Jesus now. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.

Now all marriage counseling All marriage preaching All marriage design can be summed up in three words that Jesus just gave. Leave. Cleave. and one flesh. Leave?

Cleave And one Flash.

Now What your job is as a parent, and many of your parents who have children who are getting to be marriageable age, or you have little children who one day will be marriageable age. Your chief assignment from God, so far as that child is concerned, is to prepare that child to leave home. That is to work yourself out of a job. to where that child no longer needs you.

Now I'm so grateful for the home. I'm grateful for the home that I have where I never ever entered my mind. that my father might leave My mother, and of course he did not. I cannot pay the security. that I had as a child.

Now I did not come up in a wealthy family. As a matter of fact, I suppose our family would be classified as Lower middle class. I um was born during the Great Depression. And the Great Depression that began in 1929, I was born in 1931. I have a real good idea that I was not planned.

As a matter of fact, I got bold enough to ask my mom about it one day. And she just smiled, and I knew the answer. I was not playing. But I was in God's plan. I came along back in those days and work was hard.

define. Money was hard to come by.

Some of you who are older. know something of what it was like in the Great Depression in those days. And it still bothers me to death to go into a restaurant and have one of my children order a hamburger and take a bite out of it and leave the rest on the plate. It just gets all over me, not because I'm stingy, not because I don't want to spend money. I just cannot bear to see things go to waste.

That's the way we will raise. But uh We had some wonderful times as a family. We lived in Florida. Which was wonderful. I was born and raised in paradise and didn't know it.

And really. I mean, I was a grown man before I'd seen snow. The first time I saw it, I thought it was grits all over the ground. I didn't know what it was. But because my dad sometimes did not have work.

He was never a lazy man, but there would be times when we would go over to a place called Singer Island. Right off the coast of Florida, there with the Lake Worth Lagoon between West Palm Beach and Singer Island. We would go over there the most beautiful pristine beaches you've ever seen. And we kids would seine fermentos so my dad could fish. My mother would bring some uh some Crisco in a big black frying pan.

and uh some bread. and my dad would catch fish. We built a bonfire there on the beach. and fry those fish. Eat those pork and beans or whatever they called it, Van Camp pork and beans.

I remember one time we had a can in the fire and it exploded and hit us all with hot beans. I'll never forget that. But you know, I look back on those experiences. The best times I ever had as a child, I had... because my parents didn't have much.

When we were together As a family. When dad worked, Mom stayed home. We sat down at the table together. and had a meal together and had family fellowship and lived together as a family.

Now those are wonderful times. But you can't live that way all the time. And so my father taught reliance. He taught us to work. We had to work.

He didn't give us a lot of things.

So many times parents are saying, You know, I want to give my children things I never had.

Well, if you can do that, I'm happy for you. But I hope that you can give your children the things you did have. That you learn from your parents. Those things of honesty and decency and industry and fidelity and faithfulness and know what it is if you do wrong. To be carried out to the woodshed and have the Board of Education applied to the seat of knowledge.

Ah. That happened in our home. But a parent comes to the place Well, that parent has to work that child out of a Home, the child has to learn to leave father and mother and cleave to his wife. That's difficult. Adamao M.O.W.

is her name, wrote an interesting article that I read one time, and I've never forgotten it. She said there are, in child-parent relationships, there are two kinds of love. There is Need love. And there is need. to be needed love.

A little baby is going to love father and mother. Not because father and mother are wise or gentle or kind or anything else. The baby just loves the parent because the baby needs the parent. And that is need love. Parents have children.

because they need to be needed. And so we come into this world with need love. and parents have children, they need to be needed. And so when you get need love and need to be needed love, that is a wonderful relationship between parent and child, and that's the way God intended. But then that child will grow.

When a young man begins to assert his independence, Here's autonomy.

Sometimes, and it Mostly is the mother, but sometimes the father. We have this need love. And so we began. to create artificial needs. to keep them dependent upon us.

to keep the apron strings tied. And uh We don't want them to go off and find somebody else and marry somebody else. And mothers sometimes just commit emotional incest. To keep that child dependent. Because while the child no longer has the need love, The parent still has the need to be needed love.

And so when the child is trying to break away, To grow up. To assert his or her independence and autonomy, the mother is. making rules now. That it may be unnecessary, and the father is building hedges that ought not to be there.

Now, there are some restrictions that ought to be there. A man told me one time was a businessman, he said, Adrian raising children is like building executives in business. You let them make mistakes, you just don't let them make any big mistakes.

Now, you have to allow your children. If he wants to buy that old clunker car with his savings and you know it's wrong, maybe that's the lesson he needs to learn, that he's about to pour money down a rat hole. You need to let him make some of those small mistakes like that. But you don't let him marry the wrong girl if you can help it.

Well, I've seen Joyce pray my kids away from some. But there's that need to be needed. And there is that need love.

Now when a child Don't have that need love as much as he or she ought to, and they begin to assert themselves.

Sometimes a parent will say, You are rebellious. And they're not rebellious. But by calling it rebellion, you sometimes engender rebellion and make rebellion out of something that ought not to be rebellion at all. Folks, I'm telling you what we do as parents, and it's something contrary to human nature, is this, that we work ourselves out of a job. But not out of a relationship.

The tighter you hold them, The more they're going to want to get away. But when you release them, They don't want to get away. Oh, they may. Go off and get married, that's what you want. But when you release them They will come back.

as the best friends you've ever had. You work yourself out of a job. But you don't work yourself out of a relationship.

Now, for this cause shall a man leave his father. and his mother. The highest relationship. The highest relationship in human relationships is not Parrot. child.

The highest relationship is not child-parent. The highest relationship of human relationships is husband and wife. God says that is one flesh. We leave father and mother, but we cleave unto our mate.

Now this is God's plan for us. Parents are not the supreme commitment, therefore. Your parents are not your supreme commitment.

Now you'd honor your parents. And if your parents are old and feeble, and there's no one else, and they don't have the means, it's your responsibility, your duty. to take care of them and the Bible says if you don't do it you're worse than an infidel. But your parents are are not your supreme commitment. And your children are not.

are not your supreme commitment according to the Bible. Mate to mate is higher than parent to child or child to parent. I want to say to you businessmen, your business is not your supreme commitment. I'm sick and tired of seeing these corporations move people around to the hurt of the home. A man.

is not a success. When he has a divorce at 28, An ulcer at 35 and a cardiac at Fifty. He may have a pocket full of money. But God's plan is that a man puts his wife First. Of all human relationships.

For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, leave is the first word. Cleave unto his wife. That's the second word, cleave unto his wife. The word cleave. means to weld or to glue.

You know, when a thing is welded together, it's many times stronger at that part than it is at any other time. Divorce is never even to be thought of. When you get on the matrimonial airplane, you throw away your parachute. You show me couples. who think of divorce as an option.

And I will show you a couple that have already a great potential for the disintegration of the marriage. But you show me a couple. who have just, as it were, clipped the word divorce out of their dictionary.

Now I'll show you a couple. They're going to stand. together.

Now, people, whether they stay married or whether they get divorced, they all have problems. I tell our young people when I counsel with them, there are no problems too big to solve. They're just people too small. to solve them. Uh so our job is to leave father and mother.

Our job is to cleave to our wives, that is we become mentally, morally, psychologically, and spiritually one flesh. And then the Bible says that we are one flesh. That's the third word, one flesh. To leave speaks of the priority of marriage. To cleave speaks of the permanence of marriage, and one flesh speaks of the purpose of marriage, that we come.

to be one flesh.

Now we're one flesh. Why? What does that mean? Why one flesh? This is why homosexuality, at least a homosexual marriage, It's such a misnomer.

One reason. For the one fleshedness is for multiplication. God said, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Malachi chapter 2 verse 5, and wherefore one? that he might seek a godly seed.

I tell our young people when they are planning to get married, I hope you plan to have children. Children are meant to be a blessing. We have something happening in America today. with a growing number of young married adults. who have decided not to have children.

Do you know why they've decided not to have children? They think they're going to have more freedom. They think that they're going to have more possessions. If they don't have children, they say children are too costly. And if we have children, we're going to have to decrease our standard of living.

A friend. There is no higher standard of living than to have blessed children. What a blessing children are. They call these people who are doing this dinks, D-I-N-K-S, double income, no kids. That's right.

They've named it. That's their philosophy. No, why are we one flesh? For multiplication, be fruitful and multiply. Not only for multiplication, but that's physically, but psychologically, we are one flesh for communication.

Not only are we to be lovers, we to be friends. Your wife. is not to be your computer. She's to be your completer. She is your helpmate.

A husband and wife. are like a bow and a violin. Separate They don't make music. Together, they make wonderful music. And then we're to be one flesh not only physically and one flesh psychologically.

But we're to be one flesh spiritually. Joyce is my soulmate spiritually. We pray together. And we have that communion and that love, that spiritual love. If people don't know that, I feel sorry for them.

These kids who are having sexual liaisons and they talk about going all the way, that's the one thing they don't do. They don't go all the way. You haven't gone all the way until you have that commitment, that love that leads to that physical. psychological and spiritual union and communion together, the spiritual communion. I feel sorry for these people who think they're smarter than God.

Madeleine Murray O'Hare. The famous atheist. She acted so self-sufficient. But they found her diaries. And somehow they became public property.

As a matter of fact, her diaries. were auctioned off to pay a tax bill. But in her diary many, many, many times. Was this statement or something like it?

Somebody Please love me. Isn't that sad?

Somebody, please love me.

Now here was a person who acted so self-sufficient, but she needed love.

Somebody, somewhere, love me. Marriage. Is a divine institution made of God.

Now, if that is true, That marriage has been made by heaven, marriages have also been marred by hell. Look, if you will, now in verse 7. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement? And to put her away. And notice Jesus' answer in verse 8: He saith unto them: Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you or allowed you.

to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. That is What was allowed was not God's prime purpose, not what God intended, not what God wanted. And then Jesus said, And I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication. and shall marry another committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit Adultery.

His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, It is good not to marry. But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying save them to whom It is given.

Now in this passage, God allowed divorce. In a case of fornication. But God did not command divorce.

Now There are many reasons that people give. for divorce. and their fallacious reasons. They will not pass at the judgment bar of God. For example, there are people who say, well, we're getting divorced.

because the love has gone out of our marriage.

Now, if you don't hear anything else, I want you to hear what I'm about to say now. It is not love that keeps your marriage together. It is your marriage that sustains your love.

Sometimes a man will come to me and say, I'm going to get a divorce. I say, why? Because I don't love my wife anymore. He doesn't get any sympathy for me. I say well.

Choose to love her. Learn to love them. God has commanded that you love.

Now what kind of a God would command me to do something I cannot do? Suppose God says to me, Adrian, jump over this church building. If you don't do it, you're a sinner. Can God command me to do something I cannot do and then blame me for not doing it? If God says husbands love your wives, that means.

that you can love your wives. You see, love. is a choice. As a matter of fact, the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands. We're not talking about romance here.

Listen to Titus 2 verse 4, speaking over the older women, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. We are commanded to love.

Now, we need to understand, therefore, the difference between what the world calls love. and what the Bible calls love. The Bible word love goes far beyond emotion. Do you remember when you were dating? When you were in high school or college or wherever it was and you were looking for a mate, If you were like the average person, this is what you were looking for.

You were looking for someone who was popular.

Someone who had personality.

Somebody who thought your jokes were funny.

Somebody who had a beautiful face, somebody who had a nice figure. And you If you had a chance, you would say to that person, I love you. But that probably was not accurate. It's certainly not accurate. According to the Bible word love.

What you were really saying is, I want you. I want you to satisfy me. And she, if you were a man, would respond to you the same way. Because we see in this other individual certain qualities. And we think if I can acquire those qualities, then those qualities are going to make me happy.

But that kind of love is conditioned upon those qualities. Personality. Intelligence. Popularity, the face. The figure?

But if that's why you get married Didn't you see what a trap that is? I mean, when you married her, she was beautiful, but now she's fat and 40. And he's bald and bulgy. And all of those things that you thought were so important, they're not there anymore. And so what happens to the marriage?

You see, that's a conditional love. And if you have that conditional love, it's going to engender.

Some attitudes. And we see these all the time in marriage. First of all, there's fear. I've got to keep up the conditions. that caused this man to love me to begin with.

And uh this dependency upon the beautician. And the cosmetician. And uh The man who cannot grow old gracefully because She says to herself, I've got to maintain this condition. Or if it doesn't bring fear, it's going to bring guilt. You're going to say I have failed.

I no longer have what it takes. I have a Supreme Court figure. No appeal. And you feel guilty. You feel you've let your mate down.

If it doesn't bring fear, And it doesn't bring guilt, it's going to bring anger. When that person no longer loves you because you don't have those particular qualities that you used to have. And you're going to feel used. Like a man who takes a sweet Valingia orange, takes his penknife. Cuts a plug out of that orange, puts it up to his lips, and squeezes it.

and says, I just love oranges. Just love. But then when the juice and the sweetness is gone. He wipes his mouth and throws it on the ground like a piece of garbage. That's what happens sometimes to some marriages, and people feel that they have been used.

And because that love is conditional love.

Now the Bible says that a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, and that love is an unconditional love. It is not performance-based love, but God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. And Romans 5, verse 6, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died. for the ungodly.

When you have this unconditional love, as Christ had for the church. Let me tell you what it's going to do for your home. is going to give security. in the place of fear. It's going to give peace.

In the place of guilt, and it's going to give joy that's going to replace this anger. This kind of love is an act of the will. How does God love us? Do you think God loves us romantically? Do you think God loves us because we're lovely?

No, God loves us. as an act of his will. James 1, verse 18 says, Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Now, to the world. Love is just a series of emotions. I love you because you make me feel good. I love you because you make me happy. You're pretty.

You're soft. You're good. You're strong. Read the glamour magazines. No, don't read them.

I don't read them. Why am I saying that? See what the world's standards are. The world has not got the foggy as to what real love is. Ask them to explain it, they'll say something like a grasshopper on roller skates.

No, we alive. has strengthened. Real love is commitment. You are to love your wife as Christ loved the church. C.S.

Lewis. Was a brilliant man. I don't agree with everything C.S. Lewis. had to say Maybe it was really.

He had some penetrating insight into love and marriage, and he loved his wife dearly. Here's what he said. He said, There's a difference in loving. and being in love. Being in love is a good thing.

But it is not the best thing. There are many things Below But there are also many things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling. but it is still a feeling.

Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? He said, if you tried to live with the excitement that you had as teenagers in love or young marriage, Hey. He said, you couldn't do that. But of course, ceasing to be in love. does not mean ceasing to love.

Love in a second sense. Love as a distinct from being in love is not merely a feeling. Listen to this. He's talking about real love. It is a deep unity.

maintained by the will, and deliberately strengthened by habits. reinforced by the grace which both parents ask and receive from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other.

Now say amen right there.

Now listen. They can have this same love even when they don't like each other. I know there are times when Joyce does not like the way I'm acting. But I know I've never doubted that she loved me. Listen to this.

They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other.

as you love yourself. even when you do not like yourself. Have you ever said, I hate myself for doing that? But you never stop loving yourself. You see, you have, there's a deeper love.

Matt. Lewis goes on to say, They can easily retain this love even when each would easily if they allow themselves to be in love with someone else. Being in love first move them to promise fidelity. This quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run.

Being in love was the explosion. That started it. That's the reason I said to you, friend, it is not love. The kind of in love. that keeps your marriage.

It is your marriage that keeps your love. the deeper kind of love.

Now Sometimes people say, therefore, well, you know, we're going to get a divorce because we don't love each other anymore. Friend, that doesn't wash. And then sometimes people say, well, you know, we're going to get a divorce because it would be better for the children. I've heard that until I'm sick of it. It would be better for the children.

than for the children to hear us wrangle and fuss and fight. For the children's sake, we're going to get a divorce.

Now, friend. I want to see you look God in the face and tell God it's for the children's sake. It is not for the children's sake, it is your selfishness that causes you to do that. If it were for the children's sake, you would get together and you would solve this problem if the children were really in mind. If you think it's for the children's sake, ask the children and see what the children think about it.

And you'll come up with a different idea.

Someone says, well, I owe it to myself to be happy. No, you don't. God's plan is not for you to be happy. God's plan is for you to be holy. If you're happy, that's a fringe benefit.

But you don't owe it to yourself to be happy. There's no such thing as an American right. to be happy. Let me tell you what you owe. You owe it.

to your wife. or your husband to keep your word when you made a marriage vow. You owe it to your children. that they will have their own parents. You owe it to yourself to be a man of.

Honor. And if you put away the wife of your youth, You've lied to God. You have dishonored yourself. You don't owe it to yourself to be happy. You owe it.

to yourself to keep your word.

Well, you say God is telling me, Pastor, to get a divorce. No, he's not. And God does not have a special dispensation for you. When you pick up the Bible and read it, God doesn't tell you that you are a special exception. When you get married, as I say, you get on the matrimonial airplane, you throw away your parachute.

Now You can make a decision. to do something about a bad marriage. Marriages are not generally healed overnight. But the direction of the marriage. can be changed.

Why did you get married to begin with? I've seen couples. who in many areas have a wonderful marriage. But 10% of the marriage is wrong, and because 10% of the marriage is wrong, they throw away the other 90%. You know, they get married.

Looking for a new deal. And then it becomes an ordeal. and they want to throw it away.

Now Let me come to the conclusion here. Marriage. is made by God. Marriage is marred by divorce. But marriage can be marked by hope.

I'm talking to many people whose marriages have already failed. And if you think I'm trying to make you feel bad, I am not. If you have children, I know you parents have hearts that have been broken. I know that. If you think that I'm trying to be a heavy and make you feel bad, I am not.

But I want to tell you this. That divorce is not the unpardonable sin.

Now, listen to me carefully. Divorce is not a dead-end street. God does not hold a grudge. God is not angry with you. There are those who would like to make divorced people second-class citizens.

somehow not equal to the rest of us. Friend, if you failed in marriage, just like if you failed in any other way. God is a God of mercy. And God is a God of forgiveness. And nobody has sinned themselves beyond the love and the grace of God.

And once you come to God, And you failed? And you confess that sin? whether it be divorce or any other kind of sin. and honestly repent of it. and receive Jesus.

The Bible says in Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh. But after the Spirit. And again, the Bible says in 1 John 1:7, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from what? All sin.

And those of you who have friends who've been divorced, who come from broken homes. Don't you look upon these people if they've come to God for forgiveness and cleansing, don't you look upon them as second class citizens? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And there's not a mother's child in this building who is not a sinner, who has needed the grace of God and hopefully has received the grace of God. The Bible says also in Isaiah 1:8, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And they divorced people. They might come to Bellevue and say, well, Pastor Rogers is against divorce. Yes, I'm against divorce, because God is against divorce.

But that doesn't mean that you're not welcome here. I have a friend down in Florida, Peter Lloyd. Who has a sign above his church door? He did when he was pastor there. And you walked into the church, there was a sign that said, sinners only welcome here.

Sinners only. Welcome here. This church is not a museum for saints. It's a hospital for sinners. And we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

I remember reading in the Bible about a woman taking an adultery in the very act. They brought her to Jesus. They wanted to stone her. But Jesus said, As they went away realizing their own sin. Doth no man condemn thee?

She said, No man, Lord. He said, nor do I. Go and sin no more. I remember reading in John chapter 4 about a woman been married five times. A thirsty woman had gone from husband to husband trying to find Circe and happiness and joy, and she never found it.

She had a washed out, broken life.

So she came to Jesus. And Jesus saved her. And Jesus changed her. God is the God of new beginnings.

Now let me just wrap this up. If you are now married. You make very certain. That Christ is the head of your home. and that your home is not built on mere romance.

Our conditional love. That you have an unconditional love for your mate. Let Jesus give you that love. Secondly, continue to feed your love day by day. Never take it for granted.

Amen. Never flirt with another woman. Never cease to flirt with your own wife. Let her know that you love her. Not necessarily for those physical traits, though.

It's always wise to say something about those. But love your wife. If you don't love your wife more now than you did when you married her, the chances are you love her far less. Number three. If you have failed, If there's immorality.

If there's been a divorce, Ask God to forgive you. And if you are the one in the divorce, it wasn't your fault. And you were opposed to the divorce? Forgive the partner. Will you say they are still doing wickedly?

Then ask God to give a spirit of forgiveness in your heart. And if you're married and have a Christian home, Make it a testimony to the world. Make your home a testimony in your neighborhood. These kids, this world, needs to see a godly home. personified.

That may be the greatest lesson that you'll ever give. Just to let others see what a godly Christian home ought to be. There are kids today. They have not got a clue. as to what I'm talking about.

Find some, invite them into your home, and let them see what a real home ought to be. And to you kids who yet to be married. Guys and gals, In the name of Jesus, you keep yourself sexually pure. And you only marry. A child of God.

The Bible says you're not to be unequally yoked together. with unbelievers. If you marry a child of the devil, You're going to have the devil for a father-in-law. You marry in the Lord. Keep yourself pure.

and wait, wait for the right person. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.