This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant in marriage, highlighting God's higher standards for the church. It discusses the three groups of people living under no covenant, the old covenant, and the new covenant, each leading to different types of marriages. The sermon delves into the significance of studying Scripture carefully, especially when referencing Old Testament verses in the New Testament, to avoid misinterpretation and deception. It concludes by focusing on God's original purpose for marriage, unity, transparency, and mutual respect between husband and wife, reflecting the grace of life and the helper role in marriage.

Praise the Lord, let's look at the words of Jesus concerning married life in Matthew chapter 19. You know, God's standards for married life were lower under the old covenant. I don't know whether you know that. Like everything else, God's standard for Israel was much lower than for the church. Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount, unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the Pharisees, that's old covenant righteousness, you won't even enter God's kingdom. So it's one of the things which my observation is 95% of Christians have not understood that the new covenant is fundamentally different from the old covenant and God's are much higher. So in the world, there are people who live under no covenant, you know, people who have no respect for God, under old covenant and new covenant, three groups of people. Those who live under no covenant are those who don't even respect the Ten Commandments. They commit adultery, they swear under oath, they do all kinds of wrong things, they worship idols, they take in God's name in vain, they don't honor their parents. That's no covenant. And then there are those who never committed adultery physically, I mean, and never, they honor their parents and they don't take the Lord's name in vain. Then there are those who become the new covenant, who have all these things fulfilled inside their heart, who have the life of Jesus in their heart. So these three groups of people will have three different types of marriages. And we should not be satisfied with our marriage being better than those who are under no covenant, not even better than, not even like those under the old covenant, we must enter into the new covenant in marriage. So here Jesus points out that difference in Matthew 19. The Pharisees asked him a question saying in verse 3, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And he said, haven't you read that in the beginning he made them male and female and for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and leave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh, but therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. And then they said, why did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? See, there was a law like this in Deuteronomy 24 verses 1 to 4, and it's actually a misunderstanding. You know how people can misquote verses of the Bible? And when I, once when I heard numerous people misquoting me in different situations and saying Brother Zach said this, Brother Zion said that, which I never said, or they misquoted or took something out of context. I asked the Lord, what shall I do about this? And the Lord said, don't worry, they're misquoting me all the time. See, I find that that's what's happening, people misquote the scriptures. I want to ask you, have you all read Matthew, at least twice? How many of you checked with the Old Testament, whether this was a correct statement, verse 7? I'm just encouraging you to study the scriptures. Whenever you read an Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, check with the Old Testament, and you'll see something interesting. I found that again and again and again. And it's so easy, it just takes two minutes. You go to Deuteronomy 24, you know this quotation, verse 7, why did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? It says in Deuteronomy 24, verse 1, this is the Old Covenant law. When a man takes a wife and marries her, she finds no favor in the eyes because the infound. And he writes, now read carefully. If you don't read the Bible carefully, you won't understand it. See what the difference is. There is a fundamental difference, a very serious difference. When a man takes a wife and marries her, it happens he finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her. And he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand, sends her out of the house. And she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife. And then the latter husband turns against her, writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, sends her out of his house, and the latter husband dies. Then the former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her back again. You see, this reference is only in verses 1 to 4. It's not found anywhere else in scripture really. So, what is the difference? Anybody notice? If you read, now come to the New Testament, Matthew 19. What did they say? Why did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? Moses never gave any such command. What are they saying? Moses said, give her a certificate of divorce and send her away. No. What Moses said was, if you decide to send her away, you must give her a certificate of divorce. You see the difference? He was not commanding divorce, not at all. Read carefully. Where is Deuteronomy 24.1? If he finds some indecency in her and he writes a certificate of divorce and sends her out, he's not saying, if you don't like her, send her out. Then it should read like this. If she doesn't find favor in her eyes and found some indecency, then send her out of the house and give her a certificate of divorce. This is a classic example of how millions and millions of Christians read the Bible carelessly. I believe this is the main reason for defeated Christian lives and miserable Christian homes. When God sees that a man reads a court document more carefully than God's word, God says that man deserves to be deceived. I believe a lot of people in CFC are deceived because I would say it's in your lifetime, it's better to read one book of the Bible carefully than to read 66 books in a rush. I would rather have the Bible go through me once in my life than me go through the Bible a hundred times. We miss so much. I've seen it everywhere. I say, can you read that verse? What do you see? They don't see it. And the Bible says, blessed is a man who meditates on the law of the Lord. There are many times when I've read a verse and that's all I read the whole day. The next day, I turned to the Bible, same verse. I stuck to the same verse like a red light. And I never move till the red light becomes green. Maybe God keeps me on that verse for five days. But the result is that verse goes through me. So I would encourage all of you, be very careful in reading Scripture. If you really believe this is God's word, there's a mighty power in it. And you remember, Jesus drove Satan away always just with one sentence from God's word. So in the Old Testament, God permitted, not commanded. There's a lot of difference between what God commands and what God permits. That's what I'm trying to emphasize, that many things he permits. He permitted Old Testament people to even have many wives, but he never commanded them. God's standards have basically always been the same. But because they were under the Old Covenant, he permitted them. But anyway, Jesus didn't get into a clash with these Pharisees about, you have misquoted that verse, because you know, those days, you didn't have a Bible like all of us have now to say, look at that verse. The Bible was in the synagogue. Nobody had a Bible around. But what he did say was, yes, Moses permitted. See the difference in verse 8? Moses permitted. What did they say? Moses commanded, verse 7. I don't know whether you notice that difference in your reading Matthew. These are the little, little things. If you notice, it will radically change your Christian life. If you believe that every word is inspired by God, notice the difference. They say Moses commanded. No, he said Moses permitted. And consider this as an example of how you could have possibly missed a thousand things in the Bible, even though you've read the Bible for 20, 30 years. What a lot. It's like treasures you've missed, missed, missed, missed, missed, missed, missed, missed, missed, missed because of carelessness. And when we are careless towards God's Word, we can be very careless in relation to many other areas of life, especially in our married life. So here it says, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it has not been in this way. I say to you, and so on. So whenever Jesus spoke, he said, go back to the beginning if you want to understand what God's plan was. So if you want to understand marriage, go back to the beginning. And what is the reason why Moses permitted it? Verse 8. That's also, verse 8 is a very important verse for two phrases, hardness of heart and from the beginning. Two very, very important phrases in relation to marriage. If you have a hard heart towards your husband or your wife or your children, you're under the old covenant. For without a shadow of doubt, I mean, you don't have to ask a second question. So that's number one. In the new covenant, God takes away. We can't soften our heart. That's one other thing we need to recognize. God has to give us a soft heart. And that's the meaning of being born again and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does the work of softening our hearts. And where people are hard, what they need is not a lot of instruction and marriage counseling. What they need is, first of all, to be truly born again. And you're not truly born again unless you are broken and repentant for your past life and your sins. And the next thing they need is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you can remain filled with the Holy Spirit if you remain broken and honest and humble all the time. That's all. It's not a great requirement. I want to show you the promise in the Old Testament how God takes away the hard heart and makes it a soft one, which is not possible in Old Testament times. Ezekiel 36 and verse 25 to 27. These are just three verses. But these are three of the most amazing verses in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, concerning the new covenant. And you can say almost the whole new covenant is in these three verses. Just three verses of prophecy in Ezekiel, which describes the new covenant. Ezekiel 36, verse 25. Now, I will sprinkle. He's using symbolic language, remember. I will sprinkle clean water and you will be clean. And we know that that is the blood of Christ today that is not just sprinkled. We have cleansed. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. We've all worshipped the idols of money, sex, selfishness, pleasure, comfort, and so many things. And the Lord says, I'll cleanse you. He cleanses us from what we confess. If you think that what you did in some situation was right, then it's not an idol in your life. You'll never be cleansed from it. But if you acknowledge that what you did in a particular situation was wrong, that it was a form of idolatry or worship of self, the God will cleanse you from it. Very often in our married life, we don't acknowledge that something we did was because we worshipped ourselves as an idol. You've often heard me say that I never knew how selfish I was until I got married. I thought I was a very unselfish type of person concerned for others. We all were like that. But it's a question of recognizing when we get married in different situations that crop up. This problem has cropped up because I have an idol in my heart. And that idol is myself. Myself. And that idol has been scratched by my wife or my husband. Scratched, hurt, injured. That would never happen if there was no idol. If that place was empty, if Christ was there, it wouldn't have happened. It's far too much of the worship of self. It could be the worship of money. It could be the worship of comfort, pleasure, my own ease. And if my partner doesn't worship this idol I have set up in my heart, I'm hurt. Consider whether that could be the cause of a lot of problems here. You see, an idol, though it doesn't speak, what do we mean by an idol? An idol is something which is worshipped. And all human beings worship the idol of self more than any other idol. More than even money. They worship self. Money would be a close second. But self is number one. The Lord says, I'll cleanse you from your idols. We've got to ask the Lord to do that because you can't get rid of it yourself. First of all, we don't even have light on this idol. I'd say most people outside the church, even many born-again Christians, don't recognize they're worshipping idols. And then he says, I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I'll remove this hard heart of stone. Again, it is I will. You see, this is why I say this is a thing of the New Covenant. And the Old Covenant is symbolized by the word thou shalt or you shall. You shall. You shall not. The Ten Commandments, you know. Ten Commandments is full of you shall, you shall, you shall not, you shall not, you shall not. But the New Covenant, the Lord says, I will, I will, I will. You see that in Hebrews 8, verse 10 to 12. I will write my laws, you know, put them in your mind, in your heart. And here the same thing. I will sprinkle clean water on you and I will cleanse you, verse 25. I will give you a new heart and I will remove the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. That's the soft heart Jesus was speaking about. And then I will put my Holy Spirit within you. This is, again, New Covenant. The Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit is with people. New Covenant is within. And I will cause you, this is the best part of it, not you should walk in my statutes, not you must walk in my statutes, not it's good for you to walk in my statutes. I will cause you to walk in my statutes. You know, that's the picture I get is of a father, a father who's a brilliant artist, holding the hand of his little three-year-old child and says, son, yield to me completely. And the son says, sure. And he allows the father to draw the most beautiful painting. You see, a three-year-old did that, right? The three-year-old held the pen in his own hand and did that beautiful painting. You say, unbelievable. Yes, because he yielded to his father. That is, I will cause you. And you say, you mean you've come to such a glorious marriage in three years? How did you manage that? It's like asking, did the three-year-old do that painting? He says, I haven't seen 40-year-olds paint something like that. Because he yielded to the master. I will cause you, imagine if this can happen in your married life, that the Lord causes you. He doesn't, that doesn't mean he takes away your free will. He never does that. Only demons possess people and take away their free will. What does God do? He causes us. That means he urges us. And as he, there's a little prompting in our will, he moves forward. I mean, the proportion is something like God's part is so much that our small part, I get the picture of the prodigal son limping back slowly, skinny man can hardly walk, slowly, slowly walking towards the house and the father running. See the proportional speed there between the speed of the prodigal son walking towards his home and the father running towards the prodigal son. That's about the proportion of our part and God's part. It's all, I mean, sits with the pigs and God does zero. He waits for a little repentance. Repentance means a little turning around saying, I want to go back to my father's house. Or a little turning around saying, I'm fed up of this old covenant pig's life. I tell you, the old covenant is a pig's life. It's eating what the pigs are eating. I want to go to this new covenant home. I'm sick and tired of this old covenant family relationship and life with my wife or husband. I want to move on. The feasting there is my father's home. I want my home to be like my father's home. I tell you, a lot of Christian marriages, the only way I can compare it is the prodigal son with the pigs, eating what the pigs are eating, behaving like the pigs towards each other, spiritually filthy, even though the house may all be posh and nice, spiritually, it's like a pig's stock. And is there content there? As long as the prodigal son is content to be with the pigs? Okay, fine. The father doesn't go. The father knows he's welcome to come, but he doesn't go and drag him out from there. If you're happy to be in that pig's only life, stay. Thank God a day came and the prodigal son said, I'm sick and tired of this family life like a pig's diet and that's flying into us. I want to make my home like my father's home, where there's joy and feasting and happiness. In other words, like heaven. And it's possible. One of the wonderful messages of the gospel is that we can have two heavens, one on earth and one geographically, finally, when the Lord comes. So don't be satisfied with less. Like I've often said, if your dad was a billionaire and left you a huge inheritance with many posh houses, don't let some cheating lawyer cheat you of that and make you live in a small little hut. That's exactly what the devil has done, so many, spiritually speaking. So I would cause you to walk in my statutes. And again, notice, not you should be careful to observe my commandments or you know, it's important that you should know, you will. I tell you, these are the most encouraging verses. You know, you get discouraged, just go to the sequel 36, verse 25 to 27 and say, Lord, I just need to do it. Do it in me. Holiness by faith in Jesus, not by effort of our own. This is the rest. He who believes has entered into this rest because he has seized from his own works, it says in Hebrews 4. That means he stopped trying to think that he can manage it. He's come like to the end of his resources, like the disciples who toiled all night to catch fish and caught nothing. And you come to the end of yourself, realizing, Lord, I just don't have a happy married life on my own. I've toiled for a long time. You say, how long do you have to toil? Well, that depends on when you realize you can't make it. As long as you're still trying to make it, well, probably you're going to toil some more years. Some people realize it within one year, some people in 30 years. So it's no time limit. It depends on how quickly we are honest about our failure to God and how quickly we are willing to humble ourselves and say, Lord, I can't make it. I've been trying for years to have a really happy married life. I just don't seem to be able to make it. I toiled all night and I catch nothing. And when we catch nothing, if we were worldly people, it wouldn't matter because we don't have to pretend. Worldly people just say, do you fight? Do you quarrel? Yeah, we do that all the time. And then we don't get fed up. We divorce and marry somebody else. But when you're a born-again Christian, you're not supposed to do all that. So you have to put up a front for people. You have to put a mask of, you know, a very happy married couple. And thus you start on the pathway of hypocrisy. And it just becomes more and more and more and more until you say, Lord, I'm sick and tired of this hypocritical life. What's the use of pretending? We can even put a mask towards each other gradually, as husband and wife. First, we put a mask before other people because we have to show other people in the church that everything's wonderful in a married life. Everything's okay when it isn't at all. I'm not saying we should confess our sins to others, but we're so desirous to create a good impression that gradually we become dishonest. And the danger comes when finally we put a mask towards each other. We're not willing to be open. So Jesus said, from the beginning. So let's go back to the beginning and see how it was then. From the beginning. It says here, when God created man and woman, I've come to a number of things, but one of the things is verse 25 of Genesis 2. Genesis 2, 25, the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now, you know that's true physically in married life, that physically we're naked when we have a relationship, physical relationship, we're not ashamed. Otherwise, we'd never have children. But more than that, spiritually, to be open, not cover yourself with fig leaves towards each other. You see, that's the significance. You don't have to wear clothes. If it's just you and your husband in the room, you wear clothes when there are others around, even children. Why did Adam and Eve try to cover themselves? You wouldn't feel awkward if the cat was walking around and you were undressing. Well, why was Adam and Eve disturbed? Were they afraid of the animals watching them? No. Something subconsciously they felt, I've got to cover myself. Adam thought, I must cover myself from Eve, because there may be parts of me that she doesn't like. And Eve says, I've got to cover myself from Adam because there may be parts of me that he doesn't like. All this happened as soon as sin came to the world. This covering up from one another, this lack of transparency and honesty. See, I'm not talking about being honest with our partners about all the things we did in our past life. I think it's a bit unwise, and I don't recommend that to anyone. I'm talking about after we get married, Adam and Eve were, there was no need to pretend to be spiritual when you're in love. Sometimes that can put a burden on the other person. If you're a little more honest about your struggles with your partner, you know, actually that will encourage your partner, because she's having struggles and she thinks you don't have any. And that's what discourages her. Oh, I'm the only one struggling. My husband's perfect. He isn't perfect. Sometimes parents can give that impression to children that they're perfect, and we think that's the way to bless our children. No, I have never in my life wanted any of my children to not think that I'm perfect, that they had a perfect father, because they didn't. I only wanted them to know they had an honest father, who, when he does something wrong, says, that was wrong, I'm sorry. You might understand. That will help them to live a normal Christian life when they grow up, those children, to be honest, and thus press on to perfection, instead of being discouraged, thinking, oh, my dad was perfect. I can never match him. Don't fool your children when you know you're not. Don't fool your wife or your husband. So there's no need for pretense. I mean, I'm not saying that we should honestly tell your partner everything. There may be certain things it's not wise to tell your partner, even after your marriage. I don't mean in your marriage relationship. I mean, there are things which you have to be wise. God's given us common sense. I remember when I was in the Navy, I had access to secret communication codes and all that, because I was a naval officer. Now, if I were married then, I certainly wouldn't share that with my wife, completely out of the question. That's not lack of transparency. It's not proper to share certain things. Also, another example would be, if there are some certain pressures that you're facing at work, you have to be careful as to whether you share that all with your wife and increase her burden, unnecessarily burden her with things that she shouldn't be burdened about, because she's already got enough burdens at home. These are little things that we must be careful about. So keep that principle in mind. The man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed. And I want to be open and transparent, you know, within the limits that I just mentioned about certain things, which I always say, the ultimate purpose of honesty and frankness with your partner is not to clear your conscience. Oh, I've been honest. You can do it like that, you know, like people do evangelism to clear their conscience. Oh, I better get this fellow a track. Otherwise his blood will be on my hands. Can you imagine Jesus going around preaching like that? Oh, I better preach to this fellow so his blood is not on my hands. It's evil to do evangelism like that. A lot of people do. I must not burden another person to relieve my conscience. Carry your own burden, brother. Don't relieve your conscience and put the burden on somebody else. I think a lot of husbands are very foolish in putting burdens on their wives. They should never put on them. There are certain things a wife can handle in heaven, which she cannot handle on this earth. She's a weaker vessel. Don't forget that. That's like you wouldn't make her carry a heavy suitcase when you're traveling. You'd carry the heavy one, but she can't. The same way burdens on the mind are like that. One should be careful that one doesn't burden one's partner with burdens that are not meant to carry. So within the bounds of what I said, I believe there's a great need for transparency with one another. So going back to what Jesus said about from the beginning, it says here that in chapter 1, verse 26, from the beginning, let us make man in our image, verse 26 of Genesis 1, and let them rule. Now that's not good grammar, right? Let us make man and let them. Have you noticed these little things in Scripture? You won't notice it if you're trying to read one chapter a day. You'll notice it if you read Scripture slowly, carefully, and without any desire to get into the Guinness Book of Records or how many times you've read through the Bible in your life. Let us make man and let them. God never thinks of man alone. It's always man and woman, them. And what that means, I'll show you one more verse of that. Genesis, I don't know if you noticed this, Genesis 5, verse 2. He created them male and female, and he blessed them, and he named them in the margin. It says Adam. Hey, I thought he named them Adam and Eve. No, no, no. He named them Adam. Who gave Eve her name? Do you know? Adam, yes. Adam, she should be called a woman. Anyway, my point is, it says here God named them Adam. That's why a woman changes her name when she gets married, to take her husband's name. God called both of them together Adam, or Mr. and Mrs. Adam. I mean, her name was Eve, but let's now turn to Genesis 1, 26 again. God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule. That's the next thing I want you to see, that as soon as he was thinking, this is still, when he created them in verse 27 and 26, before he creates them, he says, here, I'm going to make something new now, something never been made in the history of the universe. Even the angels are not like this. I'm going to make something in my image, in our image. There itself you see the Trinity, in our image, in our likeness, and just like three, we three are one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I'm going to make something special. I'm going to make them, now no two angels are one. Let me tell you this, no two angels can ever be one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. And next to that in this universe, God wanted another species that will become one, man and woman. That's why he says he named them Adam. He says, let us make man and let them. It's just like our image, that plural, that plural unity. That's been God's desire from the beginning. And let me tell you, dear brothers and sisters, if you don't have that unity, whatever else you may have on this earth, plenty of money, plenty of comfort, plenty of children, everything, name it, good church, you have not accomplished God's original purpose. Because God's original purpose is they should be one. And when they are one, they'll be able to rule. That means God created man and woman to be king and queen, and to rule together with everything under their feet. Rule over, over, over, over. You see the number of times that word over comes in verse 26? Just count it. What's it? One, two, three, four, five times. Over, over, over, over, over, over, over. One of the blessings, again, of reading the Bible slowly, over, over, I'm supposed to be over everything. You know, people who say, how are you? Well, under the circumstances, I'm okay. I said, you should never be under the circumstances. You should be always over the circumstances. What do you mean, under the circumstances, you're okay? Say, over the circumstances, I'm okay. I'm supposed to rule over, over, over, over, over everything. That's God's will. It is God's will for every single one of us. And then you go back to what we read in Ezekiel 36. Do you remember the verses 25 and 27? I will cause you. Say, Lord, how in the world am I going to be over all the circumstances? How in the world am I going to have everything under my feet? I will cause you to do it. See Ephesians chapter 1, how it's fulfilled through the new covenant. Ephesians chapter 1, it says that I want the eyes of your heart to be enlightened to see what is the tremendous power. You know, he's speaking about the eyes of your heart, verse 18, Ephesians 1, 18, that God will give you the spirit of wisdom in Revelation, verse 17, so that you can see and know, and you must know, what do you need to know? Verse 19, the tremendous power that is available to us through verse 20, the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ lifted Christ and put him over, over, over, over, over, over, over, over everything, and thus, and given him to be the head over the body, that's us, and put all things under our feet. You see that? Everything under our feet, because under his feet, it says, in verse 22, but under his feet, but then it goes on to say that his body, verse 22 and 23, is the church. So, the feet are in the body, you know that. He's the head, we're the body, and then the feet. So, how many of you noticed that before, when you read that, that everything under his feet means me, everything under my feet too? This is how my brothers and sisters, your family life should be. It's God's will for you. Believe that. See, if we don't understand what God's will for us is from the beginning, we're not going to come there by any type of principles of happy married life or any such thing. I mean, there are marriage counselors and books on happy marriages that have been written, thousands of them, mostly by a lot of American writers who want to make money. It's one of the best subjects on which to make money. But this is not to make money. This is to show you how to live a godly life. It's by faith in what God's purpose for me is. God wants me to rule, and that's what Peter refers to in 1 Peter chapter 3. Same thing, 1 Peter 3 verse 7. Husbands, you know, the responsibilities put on husbands, first of all, 1 Peter 3 verse 7. You must understand this, he says. You must understand what? You must understand, what does it mean for husbands to live in an understanding way with their wives? It means you must understand she is a weaker wrestler. Why does she cry so easily? It's not because you're more spiritual that you don't cry. It's because you're a man. It's like asking why doesn't she have hair on her face. Well, thank God she doesn't have hair on her face. It's because she's a woman. It's that stupid to ask certain questions like that. Hey, I've got hair on my face, why don't you have hair on your face? It's that stupid to say, I'm not crying, why are you crying? It's crazy some of the questions husbands ask. Hey, I'm not bothered by that, why are you? Exactly like asking, I've got hair on my face, why don't you have it? Crazy. Husbands, be understanding that your wife is a weaker wrestler. There are certain things that disturb her. She has hormonal changes, even doctors know that, that man never has. She has a tendency, therefore, towards getting easily discouraged and depressed and getting into moods which you never have. That's got nothing to do with your spirituality. It's got to do with the fact that you're a man and she's a woman, period, full stop, nothing else. Husband, understand that. It's a wonderful thing if you can understand that early in married life. I wish somebody had told me this before I got married. But Peter says, Peter was a married man and he obviously wouldn't write what he hadn't practiced. He says, husbands, live in an understanding made in your wife. Recognize her as a weaker vessel and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. Fellow heir, the word heir is referring to thrones. We go back to Genesis 1 where it says, they shall rule. So Peter is saying, recognize that this other person whom you're married to is not a slave, but a queen. I mean, kings have got slaves and kings have got a queen. And I presume even the stupid kings treated their queens a little better than they treated the slaves. Don't you think so? Don't you think even the evil dictators in the world treat their wives a little better than they treat their slaves? So understand that your wife is not a servant or a slave, but a queen. And together rule. And it's good for the wife also to recognize that she's not the king, because she's the queen. If you want to be a queen sister, you know how to be a queen? Simple method. Make your husband a king. He'll automatically be a queen because you're married to him. So while the husbands are thrilled to hear that, let me say, treat your wife like a queen as well. So this is because this is how it was in the beginning. And there's a grace, it says here in 1 Peter 3.7. It's a grace of life. I mean, this is, I think, referring to life in every way, not just spiritual, but life in the home. There's a grace we can receive for life in the home where God makes husband and wife fellow heirs of this wonderful thing called the grace of life. You know, it's like, it must be a kingdom because kings rule over a kingdom. You know, in the olden days, kings used to rule over territory. Here's a territory that God wants husband and wife to rule over. It's all a grace of life. Home life must be a little bit like heaven on earth. That's the greatest inheritance you can give your children. Remember this. I long for my own children that they would see, as I said, not a perfect father, but an honest father. And not a father and mother who are perfect, but who are humble and honest. And who tried their best to make their home a little foretaste of heaven. Not just a place where they got their food and clothing and education, which even the ungodly worldly people do. But more than that, a little foretaste of heaven. That they could see something of the spirit of heaven. And that will naturally increase as we walk with the Lord more and more. It doesn't happen from day one. I am often thankful that, you know, God has done it in such a way that until your children are two or three years old, they don't have much memory of what happened at home. And God knows the early years of married life, you need a time to adjust to one another. So that gives you, as it were, three, four years before your children begin to observe and grasp things. When you learn to live together, bear with one another. And if you're being careless about those three, four years, first years of married life, as most married couples are, then that period can extend to a much longer period. And then the children see strife and all types of things in the home. They won't say anything because they're small children. But believe it or not, they're absorbing it all. They're absorbing it. They're absorbing it. Haven't you been surprised sometimes how your little children say something and say, boy, I didn't even know he noticed that. Or she noticed that. You know, something in nature or something like that. It's not only nature they're observing and noticing, they're also observing and noticing their parents. How they talk to each other. I remember a brother once saying how he saw his oldest child speak in a very stern, rude way to the younger one, and later discovered that she had just copied him, imitated the way he spoke to her. So they observe a lot. And that's why you must really be very, very careful. And I say, if you haven't overcome, at least control yourself so that you don't burst out with your violent temper in the presence of your children. Just hang on to it till you can get along with your husband and wife. And then if you haven't got the creep, then what to do? You've got to control yourself. It's like controlling yourself and not going to the toilet in any public place. It's as simple as that. Don't say, I can't control myself. You don't do that when you want to go to the toilet. It's the same like that. Don't say, I've got to say this now. No, sister, brother, you don't have to. You can control yourself. Hang on till you get along somewhere. Just like God has given us the ability to control the cause of nature in our body. You know, as we grow older, little children can't, I know, but all of us can. Sometimes we can control ourselves for hours when we don't have a convenient place to go to the toilet. In the same way, if you want to, God has given us the ability to control our tongue, even without grace, because just for the sake of our children. It's very wise to keep that in mind. The other thing I want to show you from the beginning, Genesis 2, is that God, when he wanted, when he made Eve, it says, God said in verse 18, just like he said something before he made man, he says something before he makes the woman. He said in verse 2, chapter 2, verse 18, it's not good for man to be alone. I'll make him a helper suitable for him. It's very important to recognize that the number one reason why God made woman was not so that they could have children. That was one of the purposes, definitely, because you read in Genesis 1, 28, that God told them, be fruitful and multiply. But I'll come to that later. But before he said that, that was said after he was created. But before he was created, he didn't say, I want man to produce more children. He said, man needs a helper, a helper perfectly suited for him. I sometimes have delight in going to some husbands and telling them, you know, you've got the best wife in this church. And I can say that to everybody, and I'm not telling a lie. And that husband gets excited for the sad things, I've got the best wife in the church. He doesn't realize I go and tell that to everybody. What I mean is, the last part is, best wife in church suited for you. Do you believe that? You look around at some of the other wives and say, boy, I wish I had that one. The grass across the fence looks greener. Until you get there, you don't realize the neighbor thinks your grass is greener. You don't know what a woman is like until you live with her. So, it's because you live so much with your wife that you see all the faults and follies in her. But no, you've got the best wife for you. God's made a wife suited for you. Because God said that, I'll make him a helper suited for him. Not suited for somebody else. You know, it's like, if you break two eggshells, suppose you break one eggshell, another eggshell, and take one part from there and one part from there, it won't fit. It just doesn't fit. There'll be gaps. But if you take the part that was from its own eggshell broken, it fits perfectly. So, God has made a helper for you, suitable for you. Don't despise her because God selected her. You say, but I never prayed about my marriage. I was married when I was unconverted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God knew that one day you would be converted. There's a thing called foreknowledge with God. Foreknowledge. And I've seen that in so many cases when I see God-fearing brothers who were married when they were unconverted, and they've got wives who just go along with them in their ministry and in their responsibilities in a church. I've seen that in so many places that I say, I believe in the foreknowledge of God, where God sees, yeah, I know this. He's not converted now, but one of these days he will be. And, he may be a non-Christian. He marries a non-Christian wife. But one day, they get converted, they become ideal Christian husband and wife. So, I believe in the foreknowledge of God and God's selection. I'll make him a helper suitable for me. And the word helper, you know, Jesus used the word helper to refer to the Holy Spirit. It's amazing. I mean, if any of you wives are having a low self-esteem, think of that. You've got the same name as the Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit supposed to be? Help. Anything. He helps us in all types of awkward situations, and yet you don't see him. Think of a wife like that, who's such a fantastic helper to her husband behind the scenes, that everybody gives the glory to the husband, and doesn't even realize that 75% of what he is, is because of his wife. That's a real helper. And she doesn't want the glory. You know, like the Holy Spirit. A helper. But think of these wives who are in competition for the limelight, and trying to say they're not happy with the limelight. Their husband is God. Sometimes they're jealous. Imagine the Holy Spirit getting jealous that, I have anointed Brother Zach, and he gets all the glory, and people don't even think it's the Holy Spirit. He's our Father. Think of your wife like that. Happy. That means you're really one. So going back to the beginning is wonderful, and it also says in the beginning that the Lord said to them, be fruitful. So as I said, companionship and fellowship is the primary purpose of marriage, and that's important. But if you're not a companion to your wife, your husband, you're failing the number one purpose of marriage. The other thing is, be fruitful. Genesis 128. God wants us to have the sexual relationship. I mean, how in the world? This is before sin came to the world, by the way. Sex is not something God permitted after sin came to the world. No, long before that. He expected Adam and Eve to have a sexual relationship and thus have children. That's how they were to multiply, even before sin came to the world. So therefore, we know from Genesis 128, sex is not sinful. There are many things God has made, which the devil uses. The atom, for example. You can make an atom bomb to destroy people, or you can light up a city with atomic power, nuclear power. So God has made music, for example. Not for this type of demonic rock music, but for glorifying God in the church, the good music. Everything that God has made, the devil has abused. You can think numerous things, whether it's the many things. So here also, God ordained sex. Don't ever forget that. Every husband and wife must recognize that sex is God ordained. Many husbands would say, I wish my wife realized that. I say, I wish many husbands would realize that and not lust after other women. What about that part? You realize that many husbands, I wish my wife would know that sex is ordained by God. She should give her body to me. I say to the husband, I wish you would know that sex is ordained by God. You shouldn't be giving your eyes only to your wife and not to somebody else. This is where selfishness comes in. I want my rights as a partner. What about her rights? And that's to have children, so that another generation can grow up and demonstrate heaven in their homes. Let's bow before God just for a moment. Stop now. Heavenly Father, help us to live as you want us to live, husband and wife. Transform our lives this day. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.