Mf Aug 6 2018 Moses Allowed You to Put Away Your Wife for Your Hardness

[Singing and music playing] Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. [Narrator] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires godly homes. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tenths Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] As we gather this week, I want us to look at another thing that Jesus said in that Matthew 19. Let’s see that Matthew 19 again. All the while, we have been tracing the same thing. This is not given to all men. When the disciples said, "If the case of a man and his wife be like this..." Let’s look at that Matthew 19 again, verse 10 and 11. "The disciples say unto him, if the case of a man be so with his wife, it is good not to marry. But he said to them, all men cannot receive this saying, save to them to whom it is given." Now, let’s look at that Matthew 19 again, what Jesus said about marriage. The reason why I’m looking at what Jesus said about marriage in this forum as the beginning thing is because who can speak best about marriage? I think Jesus is the one that can tell us best about marriage. He can tell us best about marriage. And the reason why we are doing that, let’s look from verse 3 again. Let’s read again. We want to take another journey. We want to take another verse and take another journey again this week. "The Pharisees came unto him, tempting him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 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 to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, 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." Before they now responded, "If the case of a man and his wife be like that," that was what we explored all the while. Now, we want to come back again. One of these days, we will sit on this "except for fornication." We will look at this matter very seriously. Why is God saying "except"? Why did Jesus say that, "except for fornication"? Why is there a window here? Why is it there? One day we'll explore scripture round and round about because this is another wrongly misunderstood verse of the scripture. But let’s look at another one again. Today I want us to pick, look at what Jesus said in the verse 8. "He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your heart suffered you to put away your wife: but from the beginning it was not so." What is this verse telling us? This is the verse we want to explore. Just looking at that verse. Let us take another reading. NLT says, "Moses permitted divorce as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended." Amplified: "He said to them, because of the hardness, stubbornness, and perversity of your hearts Moses permitted you to dismiss, repudiate, and divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been so ordained. It has not been so ordained." Message: "Jesus said, Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hard-heartedness, but it is not part of God's original plan." It is not part! So, divorce was never part of the original plan. So that by the time we come to "except for fornication," we will put it in perspective later. Let us first look at this matter. The original plan, it was not so. Moses at a point allowed. The original plan, what is it? Do you know why I'm looking at what Jesus said about marriage? If you read some Bibles, they will write the words of Jesus in red. Why do they write it in red? There's a difference between when somebody said "Jesus said" and when Jesus is speaking. When Jesus speaks, it is not like somebody is interpreting God. It is God speaking. And that is why over time now, because of certain attitudes that I begin to see among the younger generation, I want to deliberately be using my hard Bible. I noticed that the younger generation, even when they carry their Bible in their phone, they find it difficult to stay on the Bible. They suffer distraction. I said that as a Bible, maturity differs. Maturity differs. Then something happened recently also that made me feel it might be very good. Somebody was coming from the vigil, and he was accosted by some security, this vigilante group. So, with their cutlass and everything they stop her. "Stop! Where are you coming from?" "I'm coming from the church." "Where is your Bible?" Just imagine that she brought out a phone. They will not allow. It may take an illiterate, an enlightened person, if I am to be among them, I could understand as an enlightened person. Yes, your notepad, like what I do with my notepad, is basically because I have several translations on it. That's why I prefer it. But for those who normally do vigilante, will you see a graduate, will you see an educated person, an enlightened person doing it? It’s those who drink Ogogoro and those who smoke. They will say, "Okay, true, we see your Bible, go ahead." But imagine it to be a phone. They will say, "Liar! Bible, Bible, where is the Bible? Liar, liar! You carry this phone. Bible? No!" They will find it difficult to fathom it. So, in a way, I think with the younger generation, I'll begin to encourage that let them use hard Bibles. And prosperity is by exemplary. I'll begin to use hard Bibles. Even though I have this as backup, I want to do it deliberately because I work more with young people. I've been able to see many in church like that. You just have to stop several children. They will start to chat. You can't blame them. They are young. Even some adults! Some adults may not even have the discipline. If we examine 300 adults, we may be surprised that we may find 150 that are also like that. But much more among young people, so I noticed it more among young people. So, but we are trying to do something. Now, if you notice the hard, okay, I'm giving example. If you look at the bolded also, you can see that it's red. Now, it is Jesus speaking here. So, what is he trying to say? What is the import of this statement? Can we, I want us to comment generally? Don't forget that it's a forum. We call it "Marriage Forum." First Monday and third Monday is marriage forum now. It has been long. So, you are wondering. So, that's what we do every first and third Monday, marriage forum. It’s a forum. So, please, let's say, let's speak to this thing. What would Jesus be saying here? What is the import of this statement? It was the religious leaders that were confronting him with this matter. Moses our father, he allowed it. What are you saying? And he said, "Moses allowed you because of the hardness of your heart. But from the beginning it was never so ordained." [Speaker 2] Yeah, NIV says, "Moses permitted divorce as a concession to your hard-hearted wickedness." And in the course of time, I don't know where I read that, that at that time if somebody married, since it's "till death do us part," and he doesn't like the wife again, or she doesn't appreciate the husband again, and "I cannot part with this person until when he will die. When will I know when he will die?" So, they will go look for something to do for that person to die so that that person will have opportunity to marry another one. So, when that one was going on very rampant, Moses said, "Okay, in order not to kill the other person, if you know you marry a wife or marry a husband you don't like anymore, you can give a note of divorce, that you don't want again." So, it is because of their perversity of wickedness, suffering that other person so that they can get out of the way. It was true among the Jews. That was very true. You can go and read Jewish history, Josephus, you will get it. It was true among the Jews. So, there was this wickedness against the other person, against the other partner, such that you can even lead to death. So, that's why Jesus was telling them that Moses only consented to divorce because he wanted to stop your wickedness in a way. So, that was it. [Speaker 1] Thank you. Any other comment from this verse? That's one major thing. So, in a way, the first thing we can just draw that, when we talk about divorce, the real heart of the matter is it is not a matter among believers. It's a matter among men with perverse hearts. Do you get it at all? There were men whose hearts were perverse. There was a generation when the heart became perversely wicked. The heart was against God's ordinance, against God's will and counsel. They were opposed to God. So, among this kind of men was a leader. That leader was Moses. When he saw the perversity and the wickedness of men, in a bid to go around the ordination that he knows that they cannot put away their wives. And they tried to instruct them, "Don't put her away." And he noticed that, "Okay, there's a shortcut among these people because their heart was perverse and wicked." And he saw that, "No, life, it is better to save life than for people to be dying that are already." Let me do something. So, it was not as though he got a commandment from the Lord. It’s Baba speaking there. But it became, the Bible says all things are lawful but not all things are helpful. So, he tried to bring out something that is helpful for the situation. It was not a law. It was something helpful for the situation. It is just like when you come to a marriage today. The husband slapped the wife. The wife carried a bottle, broke it on the husband's head. You separated them. You come again the next time. This time around, you find the wife pursuing the husband with a cutlass. The husband went to hide somewhere. The husband went to hide somewhere and then he went and then carried his own AK-47 and was about to shoot that you stopped them. Then what will you be thinking about? Better let us tell them to stay separately for a while. Of course! Because by the time you will come next, you will meet dead bodies. So, let's allow them to stay away for a while. You are not saying that staying away is a will. But that is the only way you can manage this situation. So, you can go and stay. "I don't want her! If I see her again, I will kill her!" "You also me? I will cut off his head!" "Okay, go and stay." After you have helped their head to become normal. So, we talk about divorcement, about men of corrupt heart, men of wicked heart. Don't forget that in the New Covenant, I said, "I will give them a heart of flesh, not of stone." So, when we are talking about divorce, and we are finding it, then we are talking about men who never met with Jesus. Who never had an encounter of having a heart of flesh. It was still a heart of stone. It is still a heart of stone. There was no encounter with Jesus. And if there was an encounter with Jesus, like Apostle John helped us further. He said, a man may not know God, a man may not have seen God or he may not understand God. Those are the two things. It’s possible that a man had encounter with Jesus but never grew in Jesus. You get the point because there are two things about salvation. "Come unto me and I will give you rest." Then another instruction, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." So, a man may come to Jesus and receive rest, but he never took Jesus's yoke and learned from Jesus. So, whichever way, there is a problem. But when you talk of a man that is yoked to Jesus, and that is why today I want to make bold to tell you this. And that is why we must wash our heart. That's why we are bringing this forum. Couples that will begin to tell me that they have problems, I'm making my mind to start inviting them to this forum. Let them come here and come and learn together. Let them come and learn. You see, one important thing you need to know is that the reason why it looks like the case of marriage stability is becoming so common in the church today, is because there is this dual problem. One, people came to church. Jesus said, "Come to me." They never came to Jesus. There was no definite encounter of salvation. But they just became members of the church. You know it’s possible! And become very active, and become very, you know, that the only thing I can explain why an usher and a choir, I don't want to mention the church. There's a lady that called me that they had a problem, when did you marry? Just a year ago. The brother is in the ushering, the sister is in the choir. They married, and just few months into their marriage, the brother had began to bring ladies to sleep on their matrimonial bed. When she confronted the brother, the brother said, "Relax! It's how we are. Is it only that?" Now, you know it’s a, if you are to be a Christian, a Christian can fall into fornication. Let's reason. A Christian may fall into the sin of fornication. Do you get the point I'm making? But what will be the next thing? Regret! Looking for "how do I get out?" It's not a matter of "is it only that? Relax!" And then you still continued. The brother was active in ushering. I don't want to mention which church. The brother was active in ushering. You see, I'm just, you know, a message that God has given us is that "I'm both on the field and in the class." So, I see things in the field so I bring them back to the class. To me, it was shocking. The brother was activo in ushering. The wedding was in the church. Their pastors did everything. They went through all the process in the church. Now, the point I'm making is that what major problem today is there are people who never encountered Jesus. You know it’s possible to be very, very religious. Like I gave example of my father. My father was so moral. Although the moral was so strong that even the perversity you see in people he was not. My father was honest to a fault even though he was not a Christian. There are people who are born again who are not honest. He was honest, you know, I knew my father was not born again but my father was strictly religious, strictly, he was a moralist. He was not a moralist. And he grew like that in the church. He brought us up not to tell lies, not to cheat people, to be honest in everything we do. It was we that later came to, you know, my father was about 80-something. Yes, he was moving towards his 90s when I now ministered salvation to him in a way we will understand. We have been saying it when we were young but he could not listen to us. He’d say, "I know Jesus! If I don't know Jesus, who? Church chairman I am, parochial council, I pay my tithe regularly. I carry people to church. I am the one who brings choir. I am the one who brings the church people. My car is always following them." He could not understand that it means salvation. You get the point I'm making? But was much more later. God gave me inspiration when then I went to him and my mother. He started calling me to preach and that day we prayed the sinner's prayer together. My father now gave his life to Jesus. So, there are people like that. Some even have such morals. But there are people who just grew up in the church. That's one category. The other category is that there are people who actually have the encounter, but they never learned from Jesus. What Speaker 2 was trying to say, they never learned Jesus. So, the reason why we are talking of, choir leader, pastor of church, he divorced his wife, he married a member of choir, this one. It's just becoming so rampant and you are wondering, "What is going on?" I make bold to tell you, when we talk about divorce, we are talking about a marriage situation that involve either both parties or one party, either both parties could be the two of them, or one party that there's a wicked and a perverse heart. Wicked and perverse heart. We can't be talking about things among believers. We can't. Because their heart is either wicked or perverse. And that brings us back to the foundation we laid at the beginning. The foundation we're laying at the beginning, that look, it is important for you to drink so much into Jesus such that at the point of selection, deep will call unto deep. And having selected, Jesus will still be the one helping the two of you to carry through your human infirmities, not human sinfulness, because even if you remove human sinfulness, there's still human infirmity. The human infirmities are not sinful, but they can also give problem in marriage. What you find in a Christian marriage is human infirmities, not human sinfulness. So, that is one fundamental thing we need to draw. I want to emphasize that. So, when we are talking about divorce, about someone saying they want to divorce, that marriage involve either both parties or one party whose heart is perversely wicked. Because a brother can not live correctly, may not drink deep and fall into a wrong hand. Although not drinking deep, it's enough to fall into a wrong hand anyway. Take heed that no man deceive you. If you have drunk so well into Jesus, you wouldn't have said you fall into a wrong hand. Do you get the point I'm making? It wouldn't have happened in the first place. You would have been discerning. There would have been guidance. Who has a question? Yes, please. It’s a forum. [Speaker 3] Some people usually say that God can give someone a like, a sister that has been picking and everything, and another that is also, has gone into the world and had everything. Because me, I don't believe that. [Speaker 1] Okay, the question is this. Is it possible for God to give somebody who have lived as a sinner, lived his life so recklessly, to a believer? Another sinner? She was a sinner before she became a believer. A sinner who did not live recklessly. You know there are two levels of sinning. The level of sinfulness in man differs. No, they were both sinners. Get it clear. I know what you're saying. There are some people who were privileged under God not to have been so bad before they met with Jesus. So, it was like from morality into Christianity into, so everything was just pious about them. You know some people are privileged like that. It’s just like most of my house sisters. Because they were so much under my father. My father was so much around them. You get the point I'm making. So, you find out that they grew up like that, like that, but they got born again very young. Because some of us who were older got born again, so we now got those ones converted. So, they got born again quite younger than us. You get the point I'm making? So, from morality to Christianity, there was not really a time they went so bad. But some people don't have that privilege. They will have gone, God will have been pursuing them. No, Satan will have been taking them to run. God will be pursuing them, and they will be running with them. Satan will have run with them so much! And as he was about to throw them into the fire, God just snatched them. And then God brought them. Can God permit a marriage between those two people? Is that what you are saying? "And the sister, I'm pure." That is the thing she said. I'm trying to make you see the background so that you can correct your background. Because you are looking at pious as if it was she was the one that made that possible. It was just a privilege that as a sinner, she was not in an environment where she could display all kinds of sinfulness. Do you get the point I'm making? Depending on who was your father, who is your mother, which you never chose. You didn't choose your mother. A child that is born to a market woman that, okay at age three, I've began to sell tomatoes for the mother. And as he go and sell tomatoes and orange, garage boys sleep with her and everything, they will come back again like that. Then she grew up and now meet with Jesus. With the child that is born into a home where the parents provide everything? From Queen's nursery, from Queen's KG, to King's nursery, from King's nursery, to which one again? Royalty secondary, royalty secondary to the most pious university, Rhema, and then she came out and then she found Jesus like that. Can God bring the two of them together? That's the kind of question we are asking. So, you can see that it's already "yes." The answer is "yes." God has been doing that. It is possible. The truth is this, God don't call men because they are fit, but he fits them because they are called. Both persons were both sinners. It was God their circumstance that differs. Where you may be talking of where somebody may not find mercy, maybe where somebody had become born again, you get my point, but was living an hypocritical life. I hope you get the point I'm making now. That's where somebody start to reap what he sows, if the person sows to the flesh, then of the flesh God makes the person to reap corruption. I hope you get the point I'm making. But it doesn't matter how our life has been in the past as sinners. If we truly and really come back to Jesus, God can mold us again. God can repair us from whatever background. God can grant us great privilege and mercy again because we truly came back to him. You get the point I'm making? That is very possible. Very possible. God deal with men based on their heart. Very, very possible. You may be surprised that if that brother, or that the bad person now, whichever whether it may be the sister, it may be the brother, had the opportunity of having the privilege of what that other person had, he may even be a better, a much more better person than that person. It was just that that privilege was not there as a sinner. So, it's possible for God to do such things in bringing people together. It’s possible for God to do it. But that does not remove God dealing with human sinfulness in terms of mistakes of person, so we must be sure of which state we are dealing with. I believe I think we may have to stop here today because of time. We have established only one thing from that verse today. We talk of divorce among two kinds of men. Men who have never encountered the Lord, or men who encounter the Lord but never took his yoke and learned from, and so the marriage must involve either two or one of a perversely wicked heart. Perversely wicked heart. And we've also talked about one thing we must do not to find ourselves in this situation, is what came earlier from all the contributions. Let everybody drink deep, so deep into Jesus so that deep can attract deep. Whatever happens, you can't say, "He deceived me!" No thing like that. You deceive yourself. The Lord will help us in the name of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray as we close for tonight. Let us pray. Let's talk to the Lord. Let's ask the Lord for our lives. Maybe you have not been drinking deep, why not ask the Lord that "I want to drink deep?" Maybe you have been drinking deep, why not say "Lord, I want to go deeper and deeper?" You cannot exhaust God. We don't need to fear. That's why we're looking at all these processes. I was talking to a lady, she said, "Uncle, I don't pray to marry." I said, "Why?" She said, "With all what I'm seeing in marriage today." She said, "I've never really seen a happy marriage. It's lies. Everything they are doing in church is hypocrisy. They are not truly happy at all. I know the people I lived with. They will be behaving, wearing the same cloth to church. But come to the house, hypocrisy is what you find. Marriage can never really be a happy one." It's because of the example she saw. Marriage can be happy! Lay a foundation for your own life now. Begin to drink deep. That's the words we've been talking about. Drink deep! Drink deep! Deep will call to deep. That's what I know. Deep will call to deep. Deep will bring discernment. By the time we meet at the third weekend, I will have some of our brethren here who have similar testimony of how they were able to discern wrong spouse, wrong individuals. I'll ask them to give their life story. We are privileged to have in our midst people who have had such encounter and God helped them, "No, this person is wrong." It's possible! "He fooled me," no. It's because you are not drinking. Deep, deep, deep and deep. And then we need to pray honestly we also need to pray for the church. The rate of divorce today, instability, is just a pointer to the fact that majority in the church, are they really born again? They might be choir, they might be leader, they might be everything. And that's why I tell people, don't just copy people. It's not everyone that is born again. That's one. Then two, it's not everyone who are born again, not all of them are learning from Jesus. Some are learning from the world, some are learning from carnality, some are learning, they may be leaders. I don't want to mention the place. One of the fellowship on campus, across the university in Nigeria, the president was dating two sisters at the same time. President of the fellowship! You find all kinds of things in Christendom today. And that's why we're having so much challenge about marriage. Except we have good individuals, we cannot have good relationship. Except we have good relationship, we cannot have good marriages. And that's the problem. It starts with individuals. It starts with the persons. Let us pray. Let's pray that God revive your church. Let's pray for God revive your church. God help us. God teach us your way. And at our own level, let's ask the Lord, let me go deeper and deeper into you. And those of us in relationship, "God, help me to get it right. Help me to be the perversity in me. Help me that there may not be perversity in my heart." In the name of Jesus. Daily you may break me, daily I may know you, knowing you better and better. In the name of Jesus. And let us pray lastly, God, every individual that need to learn this thing, Lord, draw them to this meeting. Every individual that need to learn this thing. From wherever they are, Lord, by your providence, everybody that you have designed this meeting for, Lord, draw them to this meeting. Draw them to this first Monday and third Monday meeting to come and learn things that will make their marriages to be better, relationship to be better, their marital life to be better. Lord, we beg you, draw men to this place. Thank you, everlasting Father. Blessed be your name our God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 4] Thanks, Lord, for your word tonight. We are privileged to be in the presence of your word. Lord, accept our thanks in Jesus name. Lord, we pray as we hear this word, that this word would not stand against us on the day of judgment in Jesus name. That this word will make our life better individually and make our marriages better in Jesus name. Father, I pray as many as connected into this ministry that we call Family Tenths Ministry, Lord, I pray our marriages will be heaven on earth in the name of Jesus. Amen. Marriages are how you are doing it. In the midst of this perversion, what are you doing? Lord, men will come to begin to learn even from our individual homes in the name of Jesus. Thank you, everlasting Father, because you are much more able to do what we have asked. Yes, Lord. Thank you, forevermore. Amen. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 1] Thanks for the part you are doing for us tonight, Lord. We commend him to your hand. We know that the devil hates him. We are asking, Lord, that you'll continually shield him from every of his perversity in the name of Jesus. Lord, build up this marriage as a mirror of his ministry. We are asking, Lord, that it get better and better, producing more and better fruit in the name of Jesus. Each time men look into this marriage, they will know that it is God is here in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray that Lord you will continually lift him up and dip him deeper in your purpose and in your counsel and in your will in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Keep on enlightening his eyes of understanding that perversity and error will be far away from him in the name of Jesus. Amen. Lord, you will keep lifting him up with your right hand of righteousness in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everlasting Father. We honor and adore you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [Music playing] Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on.