Treacherous Living Series

Introduction:

According to Dr. Lana Staneli, author of a book on marital triangles, “Of those who break up their marriage to marry someone else, eighty percent are sorry later. Of those who do marry their lover, which is only about ten percent, about seventy percent of them get a divorce. Of that twenty-five to thirty percent that stay married, only half of them are happy. Having an affair is an invitation to an awful lot of pain and tragedy.”

Laura Schlessinger, The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 223-224.

The Main Point: Since Christ is your Father, you must be faithful in your familial relationships.

The theme: Christ loves with unchanging love; therefore, respond to Him with reverence (respect, honor, esteem, worship, venerate, exalt).

Give attention to His message, His messenger and His method (using His pattern of ministry).

How has God loved you? He elected you and He keeps you from being consumed.

How have we despised His name? Through actions that thwart His universal plan (making His name great among the nations) and through actions that violate His character (acting out of divine character). It is practicing irreverence through corrupt worship (cheap and heartless).

Who is to blame? First, His ministers who fail to honor His name. They receive a curse and must change their ways, to obey and reverence Him as they instruct His people. Secondly, the people are to blame.

Why does God reject offerings?

I. People profane their covenant with God. v. 10-12

A. By dealing treacherously with family members (10).

Job 31:15 "Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?

1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

1. Treacherous against your brother

2. Those who have been set apart to God

B. By dealing treacherously with God’s sanctuary (11).

Ezra (457 B.C.), Nehemiah (445 B.C.), Hosea (780 B.C.)

Hos 6:7 But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.

1. It is an abomination to marry a non-believer.

2. It is spiritual adultery (infidelity)

1Co 6:15-16 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."

C. By dealing treacherously one incites God’s judgment (12)

Incite-Spark, prompt, provoke, encourage

1. God will cut him off (utterly destroy).

2. His family will be cut off.

Those who entered mixed marriages would be cut off. BBC

ILLUSTRATION

Christians living with unsaved… Christians marrying the unsaved…

Just as God judged these Israelites, He will also judge us.

Application:

Now what? Be faithful to the Lord! Don’t chase after those that would cause you to be defiled! Protect yourself….

Pro 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

• Keep your heart above all keeping

The mind is the fountain from which the actions spring. If the fountain is pure, the stream that flows from it will be pure. As a man thinks, so is he. BBC

Why does God reject offerings?

Transitional Statement: First, people profane their covenant with God; secondly, people profane their marital covenants.

II. People profane their marital covenants. v. 13-16

ILLUSTRATION

On November 26, 1977 I made a vow with Jan to love and cherish her until death do us part. Honor the Lord by honoring your vows.

The marriage relationship is a sacred institution in the eyes of God.

A. Marriage is a covenant (13-15a; Prv. 2:16-18)

1. God witnesses your marriage covenant (14).

2. Covenant breaking brings serious consequences.

3. Marriage is intended to breed a godly offspring (15a).

1Ti 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house…

B. Divorce is a hated violent act (15b-16).

Shaunti Feldhahn is a Harvard-trained social researcher, popular speaker, and best-selling author of For Women Only. She writes, "Highly happy couples tend to put God at the center of their marriage and focus on Him, rather than on their marriage or spouse, for fulfillment and happiness" (pg. 178, Highly Happy Marriages).

Dr. Wilcox finds that "active conservative Protestants" who attend church regularly are actually 35% less likely to divorce than those who have no religious preferences.

"Nominal" Christians, however, those who simply call themselves Christians but so not actively engage with the faith, are actually 20% more likely than the general population to get divorced.