Delivered On: January 20, 2008
Podbean
Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40
Book of the Bible: Matthew
Sermon Summary:

Dr. Jim Dixon answers questions morality and ethics, emphasizing love as the foundation of Jesus’ teachings. He addresses questions on divorce, adultery, abortion, and sexual ethics, stressing the need to understand biblical principles while embracing forgiveness and grace. Dr. Dixon guides the congregation to approach complex issues with a holistic view of God’s Word.

From the Sermon Series: Questions & Answers

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
MORALITY AND ETHICS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 22:34-40
JANUARY 20, 2008

“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another.” Those, of course, are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 13, verse 34, and for our Lord Jesus it was all about love. For our Lord Jesus it is all about love. Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is,” Jesus said, “the great and the first commandment” as He quoted the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:5.

Then Jesus said, “The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” So Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18 and then Jesus said, “Upon these two commandments are based all the law and the prophets.” Jesus wants us to understand when it comes to the law, when it comes to the commandments, when it comes to morals, when it comes to ethics, it’s all about love. Of course, Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. This morning as we discuss morality and ethics, I want us to always remember that it’s all about love. Never forget that.

You had so many questions relating to morals and ethics and I will do my best to respond to at least some of them this morning. I know that we won’t be able to get to all of the questions but I will do the best I can. First of all, I want us to discuss questions that related to divorce. Many of you submitted questions that have to do with divorce. I can read just a couple of them here to you.

“I have been divorced three times. The Bible says if you divorce and remarry you commit adultery. How do I reconcile this in my life and will I be forgiven for having broken one of the commandments?”

Another question: “If divorce was my husband’s choice, how am I to read the Bible’s words on divorce? Am I an adulteress now? Does God justify divorce if the marriage is bad? What does that mean?”

Another question: “I’ve enjoyed so many of the series and I wondered if you might sometime consider doing one on biblical covenants with an emphasis on the marriage covenant. So many marriages are in trouble these days. Three of our four children have been divorced already and one is in trouble again.”

That is just a small sampling of questions having to do with this area of ethics and morality. Of course, you can see these questions are not theoretical. It’s not mere intellectual curiosity. These questions have to do with real life situations and are heartfelt so let’s take a moment and look at the subject of divorce biblically.

In Senegal and in Guinea Bissau there are a group of people called the Balanta people. They actually are in other parts of Africa but they’re in Senegal and Guinea Bissau and they’re an ancient people with ancient traditions. Some of those ancient traditions they still practice today. One of their traditions is that, amongst the Balanta people, when a man and a woman fall in love and they decide to get married, the woman must knit her own bridal gown before the wedding. She can’t go buy it somewhere. She must knit her own bridal gown and then wear it at the wedding. Through the course of your married life, you may wear it again at some special occasions but you don’t want to wear it too much because, amongst the Balanta people, they believe that your marriage will last as long as that wedding gown lasts. If it becomes threadbare, the wedding, the marriage is over, traditionally. If you’re a guy amongst the Balanta people, you come home and your wife is doing housework wearing that gown, you know you’re in a whole lot of trouble!

The truth is marriages are in trouble everywhere. In every culture and in every nation on the earth, marriages are in trouble and certainly this is true in the United States of America. In 1920 in this nation, one out of every seven marriages ended in divorce. In 1940, one out of every six marriages ended in divorce. In 1960, one out of every four marriages ended in divorce. In 1972, one out of every three; 1977, one out of every two marriages ended in divorce. So it is today. Divorce continues unabated, one out of every two marriages today end in divorce. Certainly, it is a national tragedy.

Our Lord Jesus, in the scriptures, tells us that divorce is only permitted because of adultery. That’s what Jesus says in the New Testament in the Gospels. Divorce is only permitted because of adultery, and even then, because of the grace of Christ He would want the marriage to be healed and reconciliation take place, but adultery is grounds for the severance of the marriage union. I do want to take a couple of moments and just say what the Bible tells us about adultery.

In Genesis, chapter 20, verse 9, the Bible tell us that adultery is the great sin. I always marvel that so many Christians get the idea that all sin is the same. Somehow that idea seems to be out there that all sin is equal, that before God it doesn’t matter whether you’ve just stolen a Hostess Twinkie or whether you’re a serial killer. In God’s sight it’s all the same. That thought is not based on the Bible. I mean it is true biblically that we’re all sinners. It is true that all sin is sin and that any sin makes you a sinner. It is also true that apart from the cross, apart from Christ, apart from grace and mercy, no sinners could go to heaven because heaven is holy. God is holy. But, you see, there is nowhere in the Bible we’re told that all sin is the same. God knows the difference between various sins and some sin is more grave. We’re told in the Bible adultery is a great sin, Genesis 20, verse 9. In Job 31, verse 11, adultery is called “the heinous sin.” In Job 24, verse 17, adultery is called “the sin of deep darkness.” In the Old Testament the penalty for adultery was death. In Deuteronomy, chapter 22, death by stoning. In Genesis 38, Leviticus, chapter 20 and 21, death by fire.

Of course, most of us are shocked when we see this Old Testament reality, that the penalty for adultery was death. We’re shocked and kind of incredulous that God could be so severe and yet the law was given in love and disciplined in love. In the sight of God and indeed in the sight of the people of Israel, a culture where there was no shame, a culture where there was a moral slide taking place. If there was no discipline, if there were no consequences and if they were not publicly known, it was a culture going to rot. That was the view of the people of Israel. They viewed it all as ultimately loving because it was not loving to let a culture go to rot and so, they held sins like adultery very seriously and treated them with great discipline.

God loves individuals. God loves you. God loves me. We see the love of God through Christ for us individually and His compassion upon the sinner. We’ll be taking a closer look at that in a few moments but I want you to understand why adultery is so grave in the sight of God.

You see, marriage is a covenant and in the Hellenized world, in the Greek-speaking world in biblical times, there were two words for covenant and they had two very different meanings. One word was the word “suntheke” and suntheke referred to a covenant that was arrived at mutually so two or more people might enter into a covenant and they would arrive at that covenant mutually by common agreement. They would sign documents and they would bind themselves to it by mutual agreement, “suntheke.” That’s not the word biblically for the marriage covenant. The marriage covenant is “diatheke” and diatheke describes a covenant where the covenant is decreed by one in authority and those under authority cannot change the covenant. They can accept it or they can reject it and take the consequences. They CANNOT change it. So, this is the word used of marriage in the Bible. It’s a diatheke. It is a covenant decreed and declared by God, the terms of which are established by God. You can accept them or you can reject them and take the consequences. You cannot change them.

Sometimes I’ll get questions about, “Why do you disagree with gay marriage? Are you trying to persecute gay people?” The answer is, “No. I have no desire to persecute gay people.” It has to do with diatheke. I mean, God has declared the marriage covenant and He’s described the terms of the covenant. It’s for life. It’s between a man and a woman. We can accept His terms or we can reject His terms and pay the consequences but we cannot change them. We cannot redefine marriage. We can’t change what God has declared. It’s a diatheke and so, God views adultery as a violation of the covenant. When you commit adultery, you become a covenant-breaker and for this reason divorce is allowed in the context of adultery. Of course, God hates divorce. In Malachi, chapter 2, verse 16, divorce is an abomination in the sight of God and so, you see, as we begin here, I want to make sure you understand what the Bible says. I don’t want to crater to the culture. I want to be honest before God and before you and I want to say what the Bible has said. The Bible tells us that God hates divorce and the Bible tells us that divorce is a divine covenant meant for a lifetime. The Bible tells us that divorce is the great sin.

Having said that, I want us to take a little deeper look and I want us to see the compassion of God and the compassion of Jesus. Jesus tells us in Matthew, chapter 5, in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that divorce is not permitted except for adultery. Now we need understanding of what Jesus said. We need to look at it in terms of the historical context. In the days of Jesus in Israel there were two theological schools and these schools were called Hillel and Shammai. There was the Hillel School and the Shammai School. The Hillel School was the liberal school. It was liberal morally and theologically. Remember, we’re not talking politics there. This is not political verbiage. This is moral and theological.

The Hillel School was liberal and the Shammai School was conservative with regard to morality and theology. These two schools in the time of Jesus debated the meaning of Deuteronomy, chapter 24, in the Torah. In the Old Testament and the Old Covenant, God had allowed a man to divorce his wife if she was unseemly. Unseemly is the Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 24. The two great schools at the time of Jesus, the Hillel and Shammai schools looked at Deuteronomy 24 and debated it. The liberal school, the Hillel School, said, “Unseemingly can mean anything. You can divorce your wife for almost anything. If she burns your dinner, that’s unseemingly.” It really isn’t meant to be comical. You can read the rabbinical scrolls and this is what they taught, that if you want to divorce your wife and, in any sense, she seems unseemingly, you can just divorce her. That was the teaching of the Hillel School, the liberal school.

The Shammai School came along and they examined Deuteronomy 24. They said, “This Hebrew word that is rendered unseemingly is a grave word. We take it to mean adultery. We think that God is saying that you may only divorce your wife if there is adultery involved.”

When Jesus made His statement in Israel, the audience immediately thought of Hillel and Shammai and they knew Jesus was siding with the Shammai School and not the Hillel School. He was siding with the conservatives theologically and morally so here’s the deal. Today we can look back and we can study the Shammai School. We know what they taught and we know today that the Shammai School allowed for divorce if there was adultery but we know that that was simply the summation of what they allowed, that it was a little broader than that, and that the Shammai School, by their writings and by their teachings, taught that a divorce was allowed but only if the offense was very grave. If there was cruelty and violence and abuse, the Shammai School allowed for divorce so the question today is when Jesus said what He said and the crowd heard Him and they thought of the Hillel and Shammai and they knew that He was siding with the Shammai School, would they have thought that that means not just divorce but anything grave and should we take it that way? The answer is, “We don’t know.” That’s the answer.

Somebody said, “Well, Jim, come on! We’re asking questions and why don’t you give us the answer?” But, you see, Jim doesn’t know the answer. There are things that we won’t know until we see Jesus face-to-face, and we approach these issues with great fear and trembling. Some have suggested that maybe the reason in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5 and chapter 19 when Jesus allows divorce for the sake of adultery, it doesn’t use the word for adultery. It doesn’t use the clear word “moichea” which means, “adultery.” It used “pornea” instead and pornea had a broader scope. Maybe in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19 that’s just a way of saying that Jesus was siding with the broader Shammai School and was allowing for divorce if there was grave misconduct of any sort. Again, we don’t know. Maybe, but we don’t know.

I know God wants us to be people of grace and people of truth. We want to stand firm on the Word of God and stand for the light in the midst of an enveloping darkness. We always want to hold the truth with love, with grace and with mercy and compassion like Christ. We want to have a holistic view of the Bible. It’s so important to have a holistic view of the Bible.

I get a little frustrated with Christian brothers and sisters in Christ who are always arguing and they use biblical proof texting. If you’re in a discussion with them, they’ll quote a chapter and verse and they will just proclaim it and they’ll say, “Shut up. Discussion over. I’ve given you chapter and verse,” and they biblically proof text their position. You hear a lot of that and see a lot of that in the greater Christian community, but the problem is that really could dishonor the Word of God because you pull a verse out of context or you take a teaching that doesn’t reflect the whole of scripture. You’ve got to look at the Bible holistically. This is so important.

Let me give you an example. When Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other. If anyone takes away your shirt, give him your coat as well. Whoever takes away your goods, don’t ask for them again.” Wow! That’s a pretty hard teaching. By the way, I don’t hear a lot of you using that in biblical proof texting. Of course, the verse could be easily misunderstood. If you applied it from government right on down, you’d never have justice or righteousness on the earth. When you go to the Bible and you look at the Bible holistically, clearly God longs for justice and righteousness on the earth and that we would serve the cause of justice and righteousness so you have to take the biblical balance. Jesus is giving that teaching wanting us in our hearts to be giving and loving and compassionate but the Bible also tells us we’re to seek justice and to seek mercy so you look holistically at the Bible. I think you can’t look at the subject of divorce biblically without also looking at the holistic view of the Bible and all it has to say about forgiveness and grace and mercy. You can’t ignore love.

It’s like the Sabbath Law. Jesus affirmed the Sabbath Law. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “This is the law. Remember the Sabbath Law. Keep it holy. You cannot work on the Sabbath.” Jesus acknowledged the Sabbath Law but Jesus told the Pharisees you have to apply it with love and with compassion. You can work on the Sabbath for the sake of loving somebody, for the sake of having compassion on them. You can walk a long distance. You can administer aid and mercy if they’re hurt. You can’t apply the Sabbath Law legalistically but the Pharisees loved to apply all the laws legalistically. Then Jesus said to the Pharisees when they said, “Well, who are You to question the Sabbath Law,” Jesus made that incredible statement saying, “I am Lord of the Sabbath.” Wow! There had to be some shocked faces.

Then Jesus made this statement. “The Sabbath Law was meant to serve men. Men were not made to serve the Sabbath Law. The Sabbath Law was meant to serve men. You’ve got it all mixed around. You’re legalists.” I want us to be like Jesus and learn what it means to apply the law and biblical morals and ethics with compassion and understand the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus first spoke to the subject of divorce. Understand in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6 and 7, that Jesus was addressing a great host of Pharisees. Pharisees believed they were righteous. They believed they were self-righteous. They had earned salvation. They had earned to walk through the gates of heaven and they sat in judgement upon the immoral masses. Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “If you want to know what perfection is morally, let Me tell you. If you want to know what righteousness is, complete and total righteousness, let Me tell you. You’ve heard it said of old, thou shalt not commit adultery. I say to you, ‘Whoever looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.’” I think Jesus was more or less saying all the guys there were adulterers in their heart. By the way, Jesus doesn’t mean by that, “If you think the thought, you might as well do the deed.”

Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said of old, thou shalt not kill. Whoever kills shall be liable for judgement. I say to you, whoever hates his brother shall be liable for judgement. Whoever calls his brother “raca,” liable for the Sanhedrin,” whoever calls his brother, “fool,” liable for hellfire.”

Jesus was taking a deeper look, looking at morality inwardly, not just in terms of externals. Jesus said, “If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If your right hand offend thee, cut it off.” Do you want to know what perfection requires? Do you want to know what righteousness requires? Do you really long for perfection? Again, of course, I can’t help but kind of smile when sometimes I talk to people and they say, “Well, you know, we don’t want any of this ‘born agai’” Christianity. We just try to live by the Sermon on the Mount.” You don’t see a lot of one-eyed, one-handed people.

Jesus wants us to understand the Sermon on the Mount. None of us are righteous but He didn’t mean for the Sermon on the Mount to then turn around and be applied legalistically like the Pharisees. He wants the truth and the law to be administered in love and with compassion. I think when you see divorced folks… A person who is divorced… If there’s not repentance and there’s not mourning, they’ve not understood the gravity of sin. On the other hand, if there’s no forgiveness, if there’s no hope for the future, they don’t understand grace. They don’t understand mercy. They don’t understand forgiveness.

I said last week I sometimes get frustrated with fundamentalists because they seem so judgmental and they apply the law legalistically. I sometimes get frustrated with liberals because they ignore the law completely and live libertine lives but Jesus has called us to truth and in love and with compassion.

There were a lot of questions about abortion—a LOT of questions about abortion. Here’s one. “Is it justified to have an abortion to save the life of the mother? Would that be taking control from God? Doctors are not always right.” Certainly, that’s true. Doctors are not always right although I thank God for doctors. Pastors are not always right either. I don’t think medical procedures in general mean that we’re taking control from God. If I thought that I would never get a cavity filled. But I do think we have to run medical procedures through the grid of the Bible and through the grid of scripture.

“Is abortion something we should take a position on as Christians? With the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade coming up, what does the Bible really say about pro-life issues such as abortion?” Lots of questions like that, a whole bunch on questions on the subject of abortion.

Of course, there’s another controversial area and this is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Did you know that? All over America churches are celebrating the sanctity of human life and the word sanctity comes from the Latin “sanctus” and sanctus means, “set apart for God.” Human life is set apart for God and it’s sanctus.

Biblically animal life is not sanctus. Animals are not set apart for God. The Bible teaches that animals are set apart for man just like plants are set apart for man. God has given us dominion over the beasts of the fields, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. Therefore, animals are not sanctus. Now God will judge our dominion. We’re going to have to give an account to God how we’ve treated the earth and how we’ve treated animals and even how we’ve treated plants and the rain forest and everything else but it’s not sanctus. It’s set apart for man but man is sanctus. Man is set apart for God. Man hasn’t been set apart for man. Man has been set apart for God and so, man, male and female, sanctus, set apart for God and human life is precious.

Sometimes I get questions and I have questions here about, “When does the soul enter the body?” “When does a human receive the Imago Dei, the image of God?” “When is a human fully human?” “Is the soul imparted through the parents, through the dad or through the mother or somehow through both of them or is the soul placed by God? If the soul is placed by God, is that at conception or is that during the first trimester in the womb or the second trimester or the third trimester or is the soul implanted at birth when we come out of the womb?” The Bible does not answer those questions. I get those questions all the time and I cannot answer them because the Bible doesn’t. I do know that life in the womb is precious to God and He watches us. The Bible says, “He observes our unformed substance in the womb and we’re precious to him.” I think the fact we don’t know how the soul is given or when should caution us, don’t you? We should be very careful not to tamper with or destroy the sanctity of human life. Since the passing of Roe v. Wade, 47 million babies have been aborted in America. Just a mass slaughter of human life and I think a national tragedy.

I served for 6 years on the Board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and it was my privilege. I still work on their National Board of Trustees and some with the State Board. On the National Board of Trustees, I got to know some really wonderful men and women who love Christ. One was Tom Landry. Tom Landry served with me those six years on the National Board of FCA. Barb and I got to know Tom and his wife. He was the Coach of the Dallas Cowboys and I think one of the best coaches in NFL history but even more importantly Tom Landry loved Jesus. He loved Jesus Christ and lived his life in such a way that he longed to serve Christ. Over the course of the years Barb and I saw Tom change in subtle ways. When his daughter and her husband had a baby, we saw the joy in Tom. He was just so excited. His daughter was having a child! Then the bad news came shortly thereafter that his daughter had cancer. She had cancer and it might be terminal. It was really grave and serious. There was much prayer and agony. What does she do? The doctor told her if she was going to have her life saved, she needed to deal with the cancer now and have the baby aborted. If she had the baby, she would wait and it would probably be too late. Much prayer but she decided to have the child even if it cost her her life. She made this decision to go full-term with the child and have her baby. I think what she did was beautiful. I think what she did was noble and so, courageous. When her baby was born shortly thereafter and they began to treat her, it was too late and she died. It was so hard for Tom and his wife. They loved this new grandchild but they lost their daughter and it was like a light went off. It was like some of the joy went out of their lives. So hard.

You know life is hard. We all know that. If you don’t think life is hard, you haven’t lived long enough. There are lots of valleys and mountaintops and tough decisions. Life is so hard. If you would ask me as some have, you would think an abortion is permitted in the sight of God if there is danger to the life of the mother. I think my answer would be “yes.” I think that’s life and life. I think an abortion would be permitted in the sight of God if the mother’s life is in danger.

I’ve got a lot of compassion… I think we all do for moms in situations like that and I’ve got a lot of compassion for women who are pregnant and they’re the victim of rape and women who are pregnant and they’re the victim of incest and moms and dads who have been told that the child in the womb has gross fetal deformity and maybe born a vegetable. We need incredible compassion, but you know that 97% of the abortions in America have nothing to do with danger of the life of the mother. Nothing to do with rape or incest or gross fetal deformity. Ninety-seven percent of the abortions in America have to do with belated efforts at birth control in an increasingly promiscuous society. I still have compassion. You have compassion. You kind of feel for everybody but this is a national tragedy. I feel like as a Christian… I know this is a pluralistic society. I can’t expect to have the morality of scripture legislated top down in a pluralistic society. I know that. I understand that, and yet 47 million babies… Something is wrong with this picture. Something is wrong with any nation that allows wholesale abortion. Something is tragically wrong and we need to repent as a people and as a nation. I think this is being seen increasingly by both Republicans and Democrats. Praise God. It used to be one out of every five pregnancies had an abortion. Now it’s one out of every six I believe but, in any event, this is a huge, huge issue.

If you’ve had an abortion, God still loves you. I hope you understand that God still loves you whatever your reason. If you’ve had multiple abortions, God still loves you as surely as God loved the child that was in your womb and there is forgiveness. When we come to God in repentance, God forgives. That’s the kind of God we have. That’s the grace, the mercy, the awesomeness of God, the incredible God that we worship. This is an issue that is a grave national tragedy but we also need compassion and forgiveness.

There are a lot of questions too in the area of sex. I can’t even believe—it seems like hundreds of questions. This is a very sexually curious congregation. Lots of questions on homosexuality. Some of them are very touching. There are questions relating to fornication and sex before marriage and what do you do if you’re single. Do you have to be celibate and questions about masturbation. Of course, if you want your congregation to be absolutely silent, just mention that word. Lots of questions.

In I Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 8, the Apostle Paul talks about the judgement of God that came upon Israel because of sexual sin. So, Paul refers back to Numbers, chapter 25, and Paul describes the sexual sin of the nation of Israel simply by the word “pornea.” The word pornea was an inclusive word and it sometimes referred to adultery, sometimes to fornication, sex outside of marriage. Sometimes it referred to homosexuality. It’s the word from which we get the word pornography and also the word fornication. Pornea. Paul tells us that Israel committed pornea in the sight of God and the judgement of God came upon Israel. Twenty-three thousand people died. A passage like that is kind of scary because we all know in our hearts that we’re messed up and we’re messed up sexually. We all are. We all need mercy. We all need grace. You might be thinking some are more messed up than others. That’s certainly true but we all need mercy. We all need grace.

I love the compassion of Jesus. I love the compassion of Jesus even towards sexual sin. You go to John, chapter 4, and it’s just beautiful. In John, chapter 4, Jesus is marching with His disciples through the region of Samaria and near the region of Shechem, near Sychar. Jesus comes to the well there and people were gathered to get water. Jesus sees this Samaritan woman and Jesus goes up to her and just engages her in conversation. The disciples are shocked because a Rabbi in Israel didn’t talk to a woman. This was a patriarchal society and also, they were shocked because the woman was a Samaritan and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans whom they called half-breeds and dogs. Here’s Jesus just coming out of the box as He always did and going up to this woman. Jesus talked to her and started talking to her about eternal life. As she’s drawing water, Jesus said, “If you drink of the water that I have to give you, you’ll never thirst again.” Jesus goes on to say to her, “Why don’t you go home and get your husband and come back and we’ll talk.” She said, “Sir, I have no husband.” Jesus said, “You’re right. Truly you have said, ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands and the man with whom you are living now you are not married to”—your significant other, your live-in. I’m sure the woman was just shocked that Jesus could look into her mind and into her heart. The woman said, “Sir, I perceive You are a prophet.” She said, “When the Christ comes, He will teach us all things,” and Jesus said, “I who speak to you am He.” What an amazing statement. Jesus ministered to her and she embraced Him as Messiah.

As you go through John 4, she begins to go and share the faith and others come to Christ and it’s just compassion. It’s compassion and it’s love. You see it in John, chapter 8 where Jesus encounters the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery and the Jews, the Pharisees and the Scribes want to stone her. Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”

What I would long for and I know that God longs for in our congregation is that we would strive for holiness, that we would seek sanctification, that we would want to be like Jesus and live for Jesus but that we would do it all with love and with compassion just like Jesus.

I know that our time is up and there are so many questions. Of course, sometimes I wish maybe you would have asked some questions you didn’t asked. I would like to have seen some moral and ethical questions about what it means to be a steward of the earth. I would like to have seen some questions about oppression and poverty and what morally and ethically the Bible says to us there. I know, I trust, that many of you have these questions in your heart. Of course, we need not fret because there are weeks and months and years ahead by the grace of God and we can deal with these questions in the future. So, many questions and we want to honor everything that God has said in the Bible.

As we close, I have asked Marcia to come and sing a song. The song is called “Take My Life And Let It Be.” It was written by Frances Havergal. She was 36 years old and it was on December 2, 1873 when she read a book, “All for Jesus.” She said it was like light, just blinding light, supernaturally just came upon her and she felt like God was speaking to her. She had accepted Christ when she was young and she was a very talented woman and a great vocalist and a great artist. She felt like God was saying to her, “You have strayed morally and you’ve strayed ethically and you’ve not honored My Word and I want you to live all for Me. I want full surrender. I want full consecration. If you will consecrate your life to Me, I will empower you for ministry.” Just a couple of days later she consecrated her life to Christ right then. Just a couple of days later she was at a retreat center with ten other people. As she prayed, she said, “Lord, give me these ten, that in a few days when I leave, they will all be Christians.” Most of the ten did not believe in Christ and so, she had consecrated herself and she was asking God now to empower her for ministry as God had said He would. In just a few days, by the time she left, every one of the ten had come to Christ and she was shocked. She had asked for it but she still didn’t believe it would happen. All ten had come to Christ and she was shocked. In her joy she sat down and wrote this sing, “Take my life and let it be consecrated to Thee.” As Marcia sings the words, it’s my hope and prayer that you’ll say them in your hearts.