Holy Matrimony Part 1

The Holiness Series and the Place of Marriage

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to Genesis, yes, all the way back to the first book of the Bible and we are going to be looking only at one verse this morning. We are going to be looking at Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, Genesis chapter 2, verse 24.

If you have been among us for the last several weeks, then you know that we have been in a series of sermons, a short summer series of sermons on the subject of holiness and it is our normal practice here at Sovereign Grace to preach verse by verse through books of the Bible and I had been in a rather lengthy study of the Gospel of John.

But as it is my custom over the summer, I have taken a break from that and I am going now through a series on the doctrine or the subject of holiness and so far in this series we have looked at the holiness of God, which was our first message.

Which God, of course, defines himself by his holiness. It is the only of his attributes which is ever described to the third degree. He is never called love, love, love, mercy, mercy, mercy, or even wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice, but he is called holy, holy, holy.

And therefore we say his holiness is a definitive attribute and it regards all of his other attributes. His love is a holy love, his justice a holy justice. And so when we started this series, I wanted to ensure that we understand that the foundation for our understanding of holiness must begin with the holiness of God.

But then in the second message, we looked at the holiness that we have in Christ. That because we are in Christ, those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been made holy. We have been separated from the world.

We have been made distinct. We have been made his people. We are called his holy people, declared righteous because of his work. Our sins have been imputed to him, his righteousness imputed to us, therefore we are declared righteous and we are made holy.

That's why the Bible calls us what? Saint. Saint is not a particularly specific type of Christian, but a Christian who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. All Christians are called hagios, which means holy or saint.

Then last week we looked at practical daily holiness and I, I, I was hesitant to use the word practical because I don't want anyone to ever think that there's some kind of impractical holiness that we're separating.

But what I was simply referring to is that God in his infinite wisdom has given us justification as a gift, which is a one time declaration. He declares us righteous. We will never be more righteous than the moment we first believed.

We will never be more justified than the moment that Christ paid for our sins. That will never increase. But our daily sanctification, our conformity to Christ does increase through the means that God gives us, the means of his word, the means of his church, the means of growth that God provides.

And that is our practical daily growth or practical daily holiness. And that was our message for last week. And this week we are going to look at one of the institutions that God established in the garden that I believe has one of the most powerful sanctifying influences in the life of a person.

And that is the institution of marriage. So today we are going to be looking at holy matrimony. Now before I read the text and we officially begin the sermon, I want to at least make a point that I know is on some of your minds.

And at least I want to address it. Some of you may not know this. Every Thursday I go and preach at Set Free, which is a group of all men. They're all going through a time of recovery. Set Free is a recovery ministry.

Some of them coming out of bad situations in life, jail, drugs, things like that. And I preach the same message I preach here, I preach on Thursday. So they get the same thing you get. And when I stood before those men, 60 or so-odd men that I do every Thursday, when I stood before them and preached this message, I knew that many of them were either not married or divorced.

And I wanted them to understand that this message still applies to you even if you are not married. This message still applies to you even if you've been through a divorce or if you are a widow or widower.

The Bible says that marriage is to be held in honor among all, and that we should all understand why God established this institution, what it is supposed to be for, and how we ought to understand it.

And even if you are in a situation where you have been through a bad marriage, or maybe you have been through a terrible time of grief regarding a marriage, I would hope that you would not at this moment close off your listening to what the Word of God says, because it still speaks to you even if you are not married in this moment.

We understand why I feel like that was important to say? I want you all to understand, again, some of you long to be married, and I long for you to be married. Some of you are not ever going to be married, and that's okay too.

But marriage is to be held in honor among all. Let's stand together and read from God's Word. Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 says,. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus' name, and I pray, Lord, as I seek to give an understanding of your Word, that first and foremost that you would keep me from error. And Lord, that you would use this opportunity to preach your Word to do many things among your people.

First, that you would use this to sanctify us. Sanctify us by your truth, thy Word is truth. And Lord, that you would also use this as an opportunity to minister to marriages in our congregation that may be struggling, or folks that may be struggling with their concept of marriage, their understanding of marriage, maybe even, Lord, those who don't even know if they want to be married.

And Lord, I pray that throughout this service that you would use your Word to minister to your people. But I also know, God, that there are those who are here who are not yet your people. They have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I pray that even as we are talking about marriage today, that we will see the beauty of how marriage is a picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How our bridegroom came and he took us unto himself and he provides for us a home, he provides for us a family, he provides for us a relationship with God because of the great work that he did for us.

We are called his bride, he called our great husband. So Lord, may it be today that your Gospel is proclaimed, may it be that your people are edified, and may it be that through it all that we would see you shine forth through your Word, that I would decrease and that Christ would increase.

And it's in his name we pray, Amen. In the traditional opening of the marriage ceremony, which is found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, we have those words which say, Dearly Beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.

Now, in our modern day, many preachers have moved away from the traditional vows and some have even gone into writing their own more eclectic vows. But I am still rather fond of the language of our forefathers which was written into this traditional service because it was seen as something that was to be regarded as holy.

It was seen as something to be regarded as sacred, as separate. Remember what we said the word holy means? Holy means to be separate, set apart, consecrated, undefiled, or that great word other. It's to be different, distinct, and so when we talk about matrimony, when we talk about marriage, we're talking about something that has been made holy.

God set apart the seventh day and he said this day is holy. God sets apart his believers and he says this is holy. Jesus Christ set apart the communion table and what do we call it? Holy communion. And God set apart marriage in the garden as something that was unique, separate, undefiled.

It was in fact holy. And we call it matrimony. Why do we use that word? In fact, I wonder how many of you know what that word means and what the etymology of matrimony is because we hear that word often and we use that word often and we say holy matrimony.

What is it? The word matrimony comes from the idea of the maternal. It is the same prefix where we get the word matriarch or the word maternal and the idea is a man taking a woman to make her a mother, to make her a family, to create a legitimate family.

Many children come into this world through illegitimate means in the sense of the relationship is not formed by marriage, it's formed merely by sex. Sex does not produce a family. Sex can produce children and those children are still valuable, those children are still image bearers of God, but the relationship that's supposed to bring forth children is the relationship of a man having taken his wife, committed to her life forever so that we can raise up a family.

That's the purpose of matrimony. It's creating a family. It creates heirs, descendants. I remember the day that we adopted Ashley and Cody and I've told this story before but I think it's relevant now.

One of the things that the judge said to us when we adopted Ashley and Cody was he said do you understand and do you accept that by taking these children that they are becoming your legal heirs? And we said yes, that's what we want.

We want them to be our legal heirs and they became our heirs by adoption. But when a father and mother have a child, that child is an heir by birth. You understand? They don't have to, you don't have to stand before a judge and say this child is my legal heir because by nature that child is the legal heir.

By nature that child becomes the natural representative of that family's next generation. And so marriage has this great and wonderful purpose of producing family and producing in it generational continuation of a family.

And it's holy, it's sacred, it's set apart and it is the fundamental building block of a society. A society that no longer recognizes the placement of the family will be a society that will not survive.

That's what we have become. Many in our nation have begun to break down the solidarity and the importance of the family. How do they do that? They do that by destroying marriage. We've destroyed marriage by taking marriage and making it no longer a sacred bond between one man and one woman, but now it's between anyone in any way that they choose and now there's even a push among some for what's called polyamory, which is multiple sexual relationships from one person or polygamy, of course, which is multiple marriages.

And by the way, some of you might say, well, doesn't the Bible talk about men who have multiple wives? Yes, it does. And some of the most faithful men in history have had multiple wives. But let me assure you that is not the foundational principle God sets at the garden.

God does not set up polygamy as the standard. He sets up the standard of one man, one woman for life. And we see that in this opening text, this text that we read this morning. And I want to break down this text in three ways.

I want to show you how this text gives us the plan for marriage. This text gives us the purpose of marriage. And this text gives us the priority of marriage in the world. But before we get to that outline, let me just simply say this.

This text is found not in some obscure place in 2 Kings or later in the epistles of Paul. This text comes in the very second chapter of the very first book that God gave to his people. And here's the interesting part.

This particular text comes to us in a place in the text that is prior to the sinfulness of man entering the world. Remember how a few years ago I preached through the book of Genesis? It was probably one of my favorite series that I've ever preached.

I did three years preaching through Genesis. It was, my wife still says it was the best thing I've ever preached. I guess I peaked at that point. I'm all downhill from here. But it is one of my favorite things that I've ever done, literally preaching verse by verse through Genesis.

And Genesis is broken down in two parts. The first 11 chapters is the history of man. And then the second chapters 12 through 50 are the history of the Hebrew people, Abraham's descendants. But Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 3 give us what we call the pre-fall conditions of man.

The pre-fall conditions. And in the pre-fall conditions we have some very interesting things that we learn. First we learn that God created the world simply by speaking it to existence. Chapter 1 tells us about these six creation days.

Three days of forming, three days of filling. God forms a light in the darkness and then he fills it with sun, moon, and stars. He forms the air above and the waters below and he fills it with birds and fish.

He forms the dry land and then he fills it with beasts and man. We have the forming and the filling of Genesis chapter 1. And then in Genesis chapter 2, God gives us from the 30 ,000 foot view of this creation.

He zooms into the creation of man and he says, and here is man's creation. And it's not a contradictory account. It's not a different account of creation. It's just God giving us insight into what and how he did the creation of man.

It says he created man by forming him out of the dust of the ground. Where everything else he simply spoke into existence. God formed man out of the existing elements. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became the living soul. This is all happening on day 6. As God creates man and he gives him a soul. He gives him life. And that man is now in the perfect garden. Surrounded by a perfect dietary provision.

Surrounded by all kinds of beauty. Animals, birds, beasts. Nothing wanting to do him harm. He could go for a ride on a lion and put his hand in a crocodile's mouth. Neither would damage him. He's in perfect living condition.

But then God says something that up until that point he had not yet said. He said it wasn't good. If you go back through Genesis 1, everything God does is good. He created the light. It was good. He created the waters above and the waters below.

It was good. He created all these things. Then he got to man and he said it's very good. But then when he sees man alone. He sees man without companion. Without wife. He says that's not good. That the man should be alone.

And so I will make a help meet. I will make a suitable helper for him. Not just like him. Because Adam didn't need a pal. Adam didn't need a friend. Adam needed a companion. He needed the complimentary figure.

Not the facsimile. By the way and I know this may seem like a departure but just stay with me. This is one of the reasons why I think we can say with absolute certainty. That no matter how much the world tries to pressure in on us the acceptance of a homosexual lifestyle as being natural.

It is not. Because God created man and then he created woman to compliment man. And by compliment I don't mean compliment like hey you look nice. That's compliment with an I. No compliment with an E means to complete.

To be what he is not. Men can you say with me that your wife is what you are not. And wives your husband is what you are not. The man with a man may double his wardrobe. But he is not complete. A man is complete with a woman.

God says it is not good that he be alone. But I will make a help meet. I will make a helper suitable for him. And so we have this creation of woman. God gives man the first shot of anesthesia. Puts him to sleep.

And performs the first surgery. Removing from his side a rib. And then from that rib creates woman. Why do it that way? Why couldn't God just conjure the woman out of the air. Or breathe her into existence as he did with everything else.

Or form her from the dirt as he did with Adam. It is so that we see that she comes from him. And is united to him. And that all successive generations will also have come from him. Adam was created to be the head of the human race.

The federal leader. Federal representative of the human race. This is why when Adam sinned it effect all of us. Because he acted in our place. He acted as our representative. And Eve comes out of Adam.

And she is given to Adam. And when Adam sees her he says this is bone of my bone. And flesh of my flesh. Therefore she shall be called woman. Because she came out of man. And God establishes in the garden before sin.

Before the fall. God establishes marriage. By taking these two that he has created for one another. And giving them to one another in marriage. Now. We get to verse 24. And we have to make note of something in 24 that we ought not miss.

Genesis 2 .24 is not about Adam and Eve. How do I know Genesis 2 .24 is not about Adam and Eve? Because Genesis 2 .24 again what it says. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother. And hold fast to his wife.

And they shall become one flesh. What's one thing Adam and Eve didn't have? They didn't have a mommy and daddy. Adam and Eve were created out of the dust of the ground. So what is Genesis 2 .24? If not a commentary on Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2 .24 shows that what God did in taking Adam and Eve. And making them into a family. God was establishing the precedent. On which he would build all future successive generations. By saying therefore.

From this point on is what that means. From this point on a man shall leave his father and mother. And shall hold fast to his wife. And the two shall become flesh. Because again Adam and Eve that's already happened.

God has already taken them. He made them together. He put them together. He formed a family. And he says therefore based on this. Moving forward. A man will leave his father and mother. Will hold fast to his wife.

And the two will become one flesh. God establishes the principle of marriage in the garden. By uniting Adam and Eve. And then giving a Holy Spirit inspired commentary on that event. That would be used by all of us to talk about what marriage is.

In fact. This verse is quoted two times in the New Testament. It is quoted first in the writings of the Gospels. Do you remember when Jesus was approached to ask about the subject of divorce? What verse did Jesus cite?

This one right here. They said Jesus can someone divorce for just any reason? And Jesus says don't you know what was written in the beginning? Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother. And the two shall become one flesh.

Therefore what God has brought together let not man put asunder. We say that in the marriage ceremony. We say that because that was actually the words of Jesus. That's Jesus' commentary on this. Jesus adds that word.

Therefore what God has brought together let not man separate. But the Apostle Paul. And this will be more of our message for next week. Because this is actually going to be a two part message. We are going to look at Ephesians 5 next week.

Along with the Hebrews 13. And we're going to see the Apostle Paul uses this verse. As the foundation not only for the marriage ceremony. But also for the foundation of how man and wife are to live with one another.

He says a man shall leave his father and his mother. Shall join to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. So this verse is the foundational verse. Again if somebody wants to argue about polygamy.

If somebody wants to argue about the idea that Abram and others had multiple wives. We can have that conversation. And why that was allowed. And why God did not curse them in regard to it. But we can say this.

And I think we can all agree. That the model is not Abraham. The model is not David. The model is Adam and Eve. That's the model of marriage. That's what God provides. And that's the model Jesus cites.

That's the model Paul cites. And when we're discussing the subject of marriage. That's the model I believe we should cite. Alright. Now. Let's move now to our outline. We're going to look first at what does this teach us about the plan of marriage?

The One-Flesh Plan: Leaving Father and Mother

What does this teach us about the plan of marriage? Well, number one. It tells us in this verse that there were only two people. There were only two people involved in this marriage. God created one man.

He created one woman. Two complementary figures. They are not the same. And guess what? God didn't create any spares. God didn't create Adam and Eve and Sharon and Brenda and Connie and Karen. Just in case Adam got tired of the first one.

There's an old Jewish fable about a character named Lilith. Have you ever heard about the character of Lilith? Lilith was supposed to be Adam's first wife that was created. But she rebelled against Adam's authority.

So she was expelled from the garden and God created Eve because she would be more submissive. And ladies and gentlemen, there is a Greek word for that and it is baloney. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that there was anyone else created other than Adam and Eve.

All successive generations come from them. There was no third party. There was no Lilith. And man has a responsibility according to this text. The plan is simple. It says, That's the plan for marriage.

I like this phrase, First he is to leave his father and mother. Now this is not an insult to you parents. This is not an insult to the previous generation. But a young man when he is ready to marry, he is coming out from underneath the authority of his parents and he is establishing a new family with new authority.

He is not being called to leave behind his family completely. There should still be a relationship. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that relationship should continue close and loving and there is a point at which a young man should be willing to care for his parents in their older age.

I think that's an important part of the growth process. My parents took care of me when I was a child when I needed care and I will take care of them in their old age when they need care. So we're not saying abandoning the parents and we're certainly not calling for any type of breaching of the fifth commandment to dishonor the parents.

But what does it mean when you leave the parents? What it means is you're no longer in this family established. You are now establishing a new family. This is one of the areas I have seen cause the most problem in marriages.

I have been in ministry for a long time and I have I've done many many hours of difficult marriage counseling. And while marriage counseling is not anything that's ever the same different couples different problems.

One of the primary problems that I have seen in many marriages is the ability for people outside of the marriage to create problems for the two in the marriage. Whether it is in-laws whether it is siblings whether it is cousins aunts uncles family outside of the relationship cannot be allowed to disturb the peace within the relationship.

That type of interference in a marriage is a quick road to division within the marriage. And it must be protected against. By the way that includes friends that includes co-workers. If anyone is seeking to create a division between you and your wife they are not your friend.

If someone is trying to divide you from your husband ladies she's not your buddy. That is Satan incognito. The idea of marriage is first and foremost that a man and a woman come together and they become one another's priority.

Everything else is secondary. Even your kids. Oh don't say that. Oh I can't hear that. Hear it this way. In a biblical marriage husband and wife will be together forever but the kids are going to go one day.

And if you build your relationship around your children one day when they're gone you won't have a relationship anymore. You must build your relationship with one another and let your children see what that looks like so that they know what it looks like when they build their relationship when they leave your home.

My children know one thing. Their mama comes first. Outside of Jesus Christ and our home mama goes first. Mama comes first. I'm serious. We have a joke. Mama always says I get the biggest piece of chicken.

I may get the biggest piece of chicken but mama gets to pick. Mama comes first. I love my kids and I would die for my kids. I'd die for your kids but my wife is my priority. And I hope that you men understand why that's so important because next week when we get into Ephesians 5 and next week when we see it calls the wife to submit unto her husband and the husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

That's the call. Lay down your life for her. So that's the plan. You're going to leave your father and mother and you're going to cleave unto your wife. Now that word cleave, a little different. The King James says cleave.

The new American Standard and the ESV and others say hold fast. And the word fast there means like the word fastener. Like if you fasten something down on a, if you're putting a load on your vehicle or a load in the back of the truck and you use one of those ratchet straps and you fasten it down.

That's the idea. Or in the military when they say stand fast. What does that mean? It means stand still, hold your feet to the ground, don't move. And so in this text when it says that you're going to leave your father and mother, you're going to hold fast to your wife.

You're going to stand next to your wife. You are going to cleave unto your wife. You're going to clasp together, stick together. This is about loyalty, unwavering. And by the way, it's also used in the Bible about how we are to be with God.

Deuteronomy 10 .20 says you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and you shall hold fast to him. Deuteronomy 13 says hold fast to him. And Joshua 22 .25 also says hold fast, cling to him.

These are, this is what we are to do with God. This is also what the man is to do with his wife. We leave our father and mother, we cleave, we hold fast to our wife, and then we weave a new family. They become one flesh.

Ecclesiastes 4 .12 says a threefold cord is not quickly broken. This is talking about the idea of braiding something together. You have one string, it'll break. You braid a string into multiple strings, it won't break.

And that's the idea of the marriage relationship, is it's supposed to be a braiding, a weaving, a coming together so that it will stand the test when the test comes. When a man and a woman are married, the union creates a new entity, a new family.

You're leaving your old family, you're starting a new family. That's the plan. That's the design. That's what this says. A man shall leave his father and mother, shall hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And by the way, this is what makes divorce so painful. Some of you have been through it. I know this is a hard subject. But when you have two people become one flesh and then they divide, you don't get two ones again, you get two halves.

You have a broken situation. The Bible says God hates divorce. Are there times where the Bible does permit it? We believe so here. At Sovereign Grace, we hold to basically the Westminster position on divorce, which says that there are at least two situations where a divorce can be biblically justified, that on the account of adultery and another on the account of abandonment.

And if you want to read the Westminster Confession on that, even though we don't hold to Westminster, I would say that's generally what we teach here as far as that. You can read more about it and learn more about it.

But simply let me say this. It is never the goal. When someone comes and says, we're having trouble in our marriage. Well, let's talk about divorce. No, you won't hear me say that. Even in moments of severe pain, there can be reconciliation.

I've seen it. I have seen it. And what a glorious tribute to the gospel it is to be able to forgive someone who has harmed you terribly. The one flesh model is the model that scripture gives us. That's the plan.

The Purpose of Marriage: Family and the Gospel

To what purpose is marriage? Now let's move to the second thing. What purpose is it? Well, the purpose of marriage, as I mentioned earlier, is twofold. Marriage has two purposes. One, marriage creates new families.

And two, marriage pictures the gospel. Marriage creates new families and it pictures the gospel. The creation of new families is fairly simple. A man takes his wife and the two begin to produce children.

And from that, a new family is produced. When Jennifer and I got married, we were the Foskey family. New family. Now there was already a Foskey family. I left it. I left my father and mother. I held fast to my wife.

And in this very spot right here, almost exactly 27 years ago, because August 1st is our 27th anniversary, almost exactly 27 years ago, I stood right here and I said, till death do us part. And so did she.

That is what marriage does. It creates a new family. It creates a new relationship. Before we got married, Jennifer was, well, we could say for a year, she was my fiancee and a year before that, we were together almost two years because we got together in high school so we couldn't get married.

We wanted to get married right away. But we had to wait till we graduated. But in those relationships, we were not yet one. But when that marriage took place, it made us one. And everything changed. 1 Corinthians 7, 4 says, For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. I became hers and she became mine. She's my wife. And I'm jealous for my wife. Some people say, oh, jealousy is a sin.

No, no, no. Jealousy leads to sinful behavior. But you, what is yours, particularly your wife, you should want to protect it. You should want to keep it. You should want it to stay yours. She's no one else's.

By the way, y 'all's wives are not mine and mine's not yours. That is a new relationship that was formed in that moment of marriage. No longer would she be anyone else's. No longer would I be anyone else's.

I belong to her. She can say, that's my husband. I think sometimes it's maybe with a little bit of, oh, that's my husband. But what do you do now? But it is a giving up of identity. People say, well, when I get married, do I give up my identity?

Yes. You are no longer you. You are y 'all. This is south, right? So you're y 'all. When you have kids, it's all y 'all. But that's what you become. You become the two of you. One. One flesh. A union, a family.

Greater than the individual. And in that purpose of marriage, there's the production of these new families. But not only does marriage create a family, marriage also creates a picture of the gospel. The marriage ceremony itself is a picture of Christ and his bride.

And I know there's all kinds of differences in historical marriage ceremonies. But generally the ceremony follows some type of idea of the father giving the bride to the son. In the ancient world, the son would have to go and get permission from the father.

And the father would have to give the bride to the son. And this very same thing pictures what happens with us. You who are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, do you not understand that you were like a bride given to a husband?

The Bible says God gave you to Jesus as a bride is given to her husband. And Jesus becomes the bridegroom. Anytime I do a funeral, anytime I preach a funeral, I say the ultimate telos of marriage. Telos means purpose.

The ultimate telos or purpose of marriage is to point us to the grand picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother Andy said it earlier, we're to be living epistles read of all men. Well our marriage is a living epistle, a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's a picture of the salvation experience. The believer leaves the world, he is joined unto Christ, and Christ in Christ becomes a new creation. We who left our families, joined to our wives, created a new family, we leave the world, we join to Christ and we are made a new creation in him.

The Covenant Priority of Marriage and the Christian Home

Finally, the priority of marriage. The very first thing God does when he creates woman is he gives her to the man. And it is for this reason that she was created. It was not good for the man to be alone, so God made a complementary counterpart.

Together they formed a unique union, one they should never have with anyone else for as long as they both shall live. And this now becomes the priority of their lives. Marriage is supposed to be the most powerful and serious commitment that any person can ever enter into.

Marriage is not a contract, marriage is a covenant. And while a lot of people don't understand the difference, let me give you just a little bit of what the difference is between a contract and a covenant.

Some of you are business men. Brother Stephen owns an air conditioning business. If I said, Brother Stephen, I want to invest in your air conditioning business. And so I'm going to come and we're going to write up a contract.

And I'm going to make an investment in your business because I know you're a loyal worker and a hard worker and I want to see your work flourish and I want to benefit from your hard work. So I'm going to enter into you with a contract and we're going to start a contract.

And if at any point in the future we decide that that contract is not mutually beneficial, one of us could buy out of that contract and not incur a moral infraction. I could simply say, Brother Stephen, I still love you, but I don't want to be in business with you anymore.

I've got what I wanted to get out of this relationship and I'm going to now divide our relationship. You're going to get your money and your time. I'm going to take my money and my time and we're going to go separate ways.