WWUTT 1540 Q&A The Father Turned His Face Away, Overcoming Lukewarmness, Divorce For Abuse

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Did God the Father turn his back on Jesus when he was dying on the cross? What can we do if we feel lukewarm in our faith?

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And is abuse a biblical reason to get divorced? The answers to these questions when we Understand the

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Text. This is

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When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that we may be conformed to the image of the

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Son, the firstborn from the dead. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .utt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gage. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Trying to be quiet, though.

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Shh. We've got a baby. He's asleep. Yep. How many times is this on the podcast?

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Three now? This is, is it? No, I think it's just the second time. Is that right? I think it's three.

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Three? Third time? Okay. Well, it's the first time I've been holding him. Yes. While we've done this. Yes. My arms are jello.

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Yeah. Previously, it's been you. I think this is my first time holding him today, though, so we can get through this episode.

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That's right. Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement. On the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners, and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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The Truth in Love Conference is coming in January to Houston, and I would like to make it down there for that.

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That would be awesome. I'm not committing ourselves to it just yet, but just to make you aware, that's there.

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It's in Spring, Texas at, I was trying to remember the name of the church off the top of my head.

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I don't recall. But anyway, you can go to the Truth in Love Conference website, find out more information and how to register.

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Speakers include Owen Strand, Daryl Harrison, John MacArthur, I think it's by remote, though.

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I don't think he's - Probably. They're live. I don't want to say that, and then I'd be wrong.

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Steve Lawson, Paul Washer, H .B. Charles, and yeah, I don't recognize those guys.

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But they're here. Phil Johnson. Of course, Phil Johnson's going to be there. There you go. There's some of the names. Now, what website did you just bring up to find that?

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Truthinlove .org. Okay. There you go. So go to truthinlove .org, find out information about that conference.

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Here's another one. And this is from Samuel, and he says, Hi, Pastor Gabe and Becky. It was great to get to speak to you at the

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G3 Conference, which that would have just been me. Becky wasn't able to make it. No. I missed seeing

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Becky, but I'm thrilled that mother and baby are doing well. Us too. Thank you.

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I don't have a question, but I thought you might be interested in this conference that me and a couple of the other guys who

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I've worked with at Wretched are helping to put on. It's called the Gospel Life Rally, and it is to equip

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Christians to speak intelligently on the issue of life. We have a huge lineup of speakers, including

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Tom Askell, Virgil Walker, Ray Comfort, and lots of others. It is being sponsored by Passion Life Ministries, ABWE, which is a church planting ministry, and Reftunes as well.

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It's completely free and virtual, so price and location will not be a limiting factor for anybody to attend.

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You can see more about it at GospelLifeRally .org. Thank you for your time and for your ministry.

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That's awesome. So there's another one, GospelLifeRally .org. All of that online.

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That's a great idea. Yeah, it's a virtual online conference, so find out more information by checking out the website.

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Okay, let's get to our first question here. Now this one's actually submitted anonymously.

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Okay. Gabe and Becky, in the song, How Deep the Father's Love for Us, there's the line, the father turned his face away.

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I have often heard that God turned his back on Jesus while he hung on the cross.

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Is this true? Have you heard that before? No. Like when the darkness...

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I mean, yeah, I think so. You know, when the son was blotted out, that that was supposed to be the father was turning his back on Christ, on his son as he hung on the cross.

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You know, that has been something that's been, I think my whole life I've heard something about that.

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I'm not sure how far back that goes. Yeah. I didn't grow up hearing it, but I was raised

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Catholic too, so I don't know if that makes a difference. Okay. Well, maybe not a Catholic teaching. I don't know.

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It just wasn't in our circles that we hung out with, you know. Well the particular hymn that is being spoken about here is

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How Deep the Father's Love for Us. Stuart Townend, I know, is one of the writers on it. I don't know if there's another writer. But the lyrics go like this.

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This is the first verse. How deep the father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure.

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How great the pain of searing loss. The father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.

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Now Psalm 22 .1, a misunderstanding of that particular psalm, is often why we think of the father turning his face away.

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After all, when Jesus was dying on the cross, he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Right. Which is quoting

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Psalm 22. So we're going to look at that psalm and understand that a little more in context. But first of all, here's why we can know confidently that the father was not turning his back on the son.

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Okay. Jesus' death on the cross was the father's plan. Right.

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So why would the father be turning his back on his son when it was the father's intention for Christ to die?

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As it says in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to crush him. And as Peter preached at Pentecost in Acts 22, or I'm sorry,

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Acts 2 .23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

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You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. And then later on in Acts 4 .27 to 28, for truly in this city were gathered together against your holy servant,

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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

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Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

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In Matthew chapter three, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, what was the voice of the father from heaven?

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This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And later on at the mountain of transfiguration,

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Peter and James and John heard the father say the same thing there as well. This is my beloved son. Was the father not pleased with the son as he was dying on the cross for our sins?

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As he was doing the right thing. Right, as he was doing the will of the father. Jesus had prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Lord, if it is your will, let this cup pass from me.

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Right. Not what I will, but what you will. So this was the father's will that the son would be crucified.

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Therefore, it does not make sense to say that the father would have turned his back on the son.

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Now, I remember that we had a conversation about this with our worship leaders at a previous church.

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Well, the church that I pastored in Kansas. And the worship leaders had asked me about this one time because they wanted to sing this song.

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But they said, we really don't think this line is accurate. We don't think it's true that the father turns his face away.

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So we changed the line. I can't remember exactly what we changed it to. It was something like the savior gave his life away.

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Yeah, I think it was something like the father gives his son away or something like that. It still doesn't rhyme with glory, right?

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So if you can think of something like throw the word story in there at the end. But Stuart Townend didn't make it rhyme anyway.

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So yeah, it's just the Y sound at the very end. They both end in Y.

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That's really the only similarity that away has with glory. But anyway, so we changed the line.

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We just sang something else instead, though it's written in the hymnal, the hymnal that we used as the father turns his face away.

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What are we to understand then, according to Psalm 22, where Jesus prayed from the cross, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?

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Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest.

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Now that second line there actually explains to us what the first line means. So the opening line, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The second line, which is a parallelism in the Psalms, why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?

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So this is like what Jesus prayed in the garden. If it be your will, let this cup pass from me, not as I will, but as you will.

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So why are you letting my tormentors torment me would be another way of understanding it.

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But Jesus is saying this rhetorically. He knows exactly why he's going through this.

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Right. He's saying it. You might say, understand it this way, that Jesus is saying it for our benefit or for the benefit of his hearers, not because he himself believes that he's been abandoned by God.

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He knows that he has not. Later on in verse 15, my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

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You lay me in the dust of death. So Jesus is essentially praying

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Psalm 22 from the cross. That's right.

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That is right. It is so sad. There he goes. His eyes are drooping now.

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Should break all of our hearts. That's right. Maybe he'll go back to sleep here. But anyway, so Jesus praying that from the cross.

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Now, as I shared with one of our study groups here at the church, when they were going through book two of the

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Psalms, I mentioned that the opening line of the Psalm was often the title of the

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Psalm. So we know them by like Psalm 22, Psalm 23, the

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Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But that would have been the title of the Psalm for the Jews.

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They would have known it as the Lord is my shepherd. That would have been the name of the Psalm. So the name of Psalm 22 is, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Just because that's the line that's quoted in Matthew 27, that doesn't mean that's the only thing that Jesus prayed from the cross.

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It's really indicating to us that he's praying that Psalm. And showing that he is the fulfillment of that Psalm.

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Now later on in Luke 23, it says that Jesus' last words were, into your hands

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I commit my spirit. Well, that's in Psalm 31. So does it mean then that Jesus was praying

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Psalm 22 to Psalm 31 in the three hours that he was hanging on the cross?

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Maybe. A theory. It could have been that he was praying more than one Psalm while he was there.

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True. But again, for Jesus to pray that from the cross, he's saying that for our benefit, more than him expressing from his heart that the

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Father is not with him. Right. He knows that the Father is there. He knows that he's accomplishing the

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Father's will. He knows he's not being abandoned by the Father. He knows that. But he certainly feels greatly distressed while he's hanging there on the cross.

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Yeah. And the anxiety that he's... He's a holy man. Exactly. Yeah. And what he's going through is not just the physical pain, but he is bearing our sins.

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Right. The wrath of God is crushing him there on the cross. So certainly he feels like, he can feel like in that moment, that God is so far from him.

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But he certainly knows that he's not, if that makes sense. So he can feel that way, but he knows that God is truly with him.

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Anybody who's been through a very stressful time period in their life, really feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders kind of thing, who is a

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Christian, you would get... You would understand that feeling of there's just all of this heaviness on you, but you still know that God is with you, even though you feel all this pressure, this weight.

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Right. Those who cling truly to God's promises in the midst of those moments. Right. I mean, some can feel so weighted down that they wonder if God is really there.

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Oh, well, that's true. But think of the words of David in Psalm 13. This is often a psalm that I come to whenever I'm counseling somebody about feeling distressed or feeling depressed.

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There's nothing sinful about feeling depressed. Right. It can be sinful if you lose hope.

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Right. But depression itself is not a sin. Jesus was depressed. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, it says in Isaiah.

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So... And he was sinless. Right. And yet he was sinless. So listen to Psalm 13. Listen to David's expression unto the

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Lord. And this is the word of God. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?

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How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

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How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me,

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O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemy say,

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I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

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But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

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I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.

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So in that moment, it is perfectly fine. In moments like those to say, how long,

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O Lord, will you forget me forever? Just as David prayed that unto the Lord. As long as it doesn't lead to despair, you continue to cling steadfastly to the promises of God that we have in his word.

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You hold fast to Christ. And that even in those moments, though it may feel like, though you may ask,

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God, where are you in the midst of this? Yet you can say, I've trusted in your steadfast love.

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And my heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the

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Lord because you have dealt bountifully with me. So knowing that the promises of God are in Christ, and though we may not feel any kind of resolve in this life, like you'll never see your enemies triumphed over in your lifetime on this earth.

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We will get to heaven and reign with Christ one day, and we'll see our enemies put under our feet.

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As Paul wrote to the Romans, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

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You may not feel that way as you live through this life under very difficult and trying circumstances, but when we reign with Christ forever in glory, all of God's enemies and Satan himself will be placed under our feet.

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And those are promises we hold steadfastly to until the very end. Even helping us to endure in these days.

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Definitely. And that leads us to this next question. Okay. So Jesse says, hey -o.

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Hey. Always a good email to start with, hey -o. You always say, hey -ah. Hey -ah, that's right.

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I always say hey -ah. Just about all of my emails begin that way, or I say greetings. It's one of the two.

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I discovered your YouTube channel recently, and I absolutely love your descriptions of the word of God in a quick and blunt fashion.

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And with me having ADHD, it really helps. Me too.

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I really wanted to ask on the topic of lukewarmness. I constantly worry that I have no faith due to my

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ADHD, and I can't focus on anything that I'd want to pursue without feeling depressed.

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The only time I feel a little bit better is when I'm helping or working with others. I have lots of biblical knowledge, but it doesn't feel alive like everyone else describes it to be.

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I constantly feel like I'm letting people down, even though everyone I work with likes me.

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There's more to tell about, but that probably will be for another time. My most recent thing bothering me is my family and I moving to Texas.

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So many benefits, but I'm so neutral slash lukewarm on the idea. I really just want to know what to do.

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Now, it's interesting to me, Jesse, this fellow's name is Jesse. I don't know if I mentioned that.

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You did. I did. Okay. So it's interesting to me, Jesse, that you tied lukewarmness, like a lukewarmness in your faith, with being lukewarm on the idea of moving.

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It's interesting that you connected those two. And I say that because perhaps where you're struggling is being thankful for your circumstances, for all that God has given to you, and rejoicing in the goodness that God has shown you through Jesus Christ.

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So if you're not feeling thankful there, then you're kind of in despair about your circumstances as well.

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Like, you don't feel excited or on fire about your circumstances, and that's being reflected in your faith also.

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You're not thankful for your circumstances either. But what does

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Scripture teach us in 1 Thessalonians 5 .18? Give thanks to God in all circumstances, for this is

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God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And Philippians 4 .4 says,

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And supplication is perfect for your ADHD, because that just means over and over and over again. Keep it in front of you.

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That's right. Very good. Always. Becky can share something about that. Yeah.

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I think mine's more related to distractions. Yeah. It's not ADHD. It's like multitasking in my brain.

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Right. Too many different directions. Just being easily distracted. Yeah. So this concept of feeling lukewarm, we often tie that to something that Jesus said to the

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Laodiceans in Revelation chapter 3. So he said in Revelation 3 .15, I know your works.

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You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,

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I will spit you out of my mouth. And basically what Jesus was rebuking them for was being far from the source.

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So you had water in Heropolis and water in Colossae that was being piped into Laodicea.

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They were rich in all kinds of things. But not water. But not water. They did not have a good water source.

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So the water had to come from somewhere else. When it got to Laodicea, it was neither hot nor was it cold.

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It was lukewarm. And so because they were far from the source, you drink that lukewarm water. It doesn't taste as good.

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So Jesus saying, I will spit you out of my mouth because you're lukewarm. Because you're far from the source.

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For you say, Jesus said to the Laodiceans, I am rich. I have prospered. I need nothing.

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Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich.

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And white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen. And salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

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Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

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And so Jesse, I say this to you in this way so that you would come near to the source.

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That you would draw near to Christ and he will draw near to you. And then you will find that peace that surpasses all understanding.

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Guarding your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I highly suggest finding a solid church first and foremost in your new area.

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And then plugging into a Bible study since you said that you feel more comfortable around others.

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Right. Right. He feels like he's accomplishing when he's working with others. There you go. Yeah. And that would be perfect in a

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Bible study atmosphere, I think. Where you're working with other people.

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Yeah. And it kind of indicates that you need some good accountability around you. Definitely. So some other people that can help encourage you in the word and in your devotion to Christ.

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You know, you want to be careful not to fall into the 2 Timothy 3, 5 thing of having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.

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Or like in James 4, 4 where James says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

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And in those circumstances, you can certainly feel lukewarm. You're going to be far from the source. You look like you're a

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Christian, but you're actually far from God. Okay. So be careful about that and falling into that groove of just doing the

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Christian thing. And maybe if I just do the Christian thing, I'll feel better about it. Right. I know you were kind of looking at me funny. Did I not start that well?

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I was having, I mean, other people might be following, but I was having trouble. Yeah. Right. So then you just come into that thing of, well,

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I'm just going to continue to act like a Christian and then maybe it'll work itself out. Well, then you can also put on a fake disguise, basically.

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And then as soon as you take the disguise off, everything else falls off with it. Right. Then you're back to your bones.

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Yeah. You're looking for a feeling instead of the truth when you need to go after Christ.

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Well, that's why I was thinking a Bible study, because in a solid church, ideally, it would bring him towards the understanding and maybe help encouraging him, like you said, with the accountability.

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Yeah. Constant devotion to the word, prayer. I mean, regular disciplines are important. Yes. And the less you do, the further from Christ you feel.

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That's certainly a common thing. Attend church regularly.

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Yes. Know with confidence who Christ is and what he has done. Put your trust and your faith in Christ.

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Last question here. This is a marriage -related question. This goes back to what we've been talking about in 1 Corinthians 7.

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This is from Michelle. Hey, brother, while you're still in 1 Corinthians 7, we're in 1

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Corinthians 8 now this week. But anyway, this was before. These were the questions we were going to answer last week.

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Yes. That was my fault. Right. Well, it wasn't. Well, kind of. It was Zeke. But I made the call.

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Yeah. She was the one that said she couldn't do it. So last week's episode was actually what

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I was going to do this week. Right. And we just had to flip -flop it. So anyway. So Michelle says, while you're still in 1

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Corinthians 7 or since you just finished up There we go. 1 Corinthians 7, have you ever heard someone make the argument that in addition to adultery and literal abandonment, spousal abuse is also a biblically allowable reason for divorce?

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The reasoning is that abuse is sort of a metaphorical abandonment of the marriage vows or the spouse.

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So two questions. Number one, do you think that's a hermeneutically proper application of 1

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Corinthians 7 15? And number two, if not, is spousal abuse a biblically allowable reason for divorce?

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Love to you, Becky, and the kids. Michelle. All right. Let's bring up once again 1

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Corinthians. Is that Michelle Leslie? Yes, it was. I wasn't trying to plug

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Michelle Leslie, but there you go. Hi, Michelle. Well, I wanted to know who

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I was getting excited about. You can't just get excited about any other Michelle.

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Well, I mean, I don't know any other. I do know other Michelle's. Don't get me wrong. But we even know somebody with the last name

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Michelle. Yes, we do. Yes. And I have an aunt Michelle. I just wanted to know who

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I was getting excited about. Well, she signed her name Michelle. So if she didn't want to be known as Michelle Leslie, I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

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But she has a great website. She does. That you can pull a lot of information from. That is true. So I'm going to plug that right there.

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And they have a podcast, and they have a blog. Yes. Anyway. Ladies, if Becky knows you, there's no anonymity around her.

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Sorry. So there you go. I'm trying. So back to 1

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Corinthians 7 .15. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so.

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In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

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So Michelle's question is, is it a proper application of 1 Corinthians 7 .15 to say that spousal abuse, therefore, qualifies as abandonment?

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Now, I think I can answer both of those questions together. Just to say that no, spousal abuse is not a reason for divorce.

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Because abuse can be kind of ambiguous. Like, what do you mean by abuse?

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Feelings are big right now in our society. And so if you feel the least bit unloved, people are, you know.

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Right. You can say, I'm being abused. Yes. My spouse isn't paying attention to me. Especially after the Me Too movement.

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Right. Part of that did a lot of good, but a lot of it, I'd say the majority of it did a lot of damage.

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Now, any kind of spousal abuse is wrong. So don't hear me permitting spousal abuse.

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Whether you're talking about verbal abuse or you're talking about physical abuse, it's wrong.

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It's sinful. Yes. Husbands have been instructed to love their wives as Christ loves the church, Ephesians 5.

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Or even look at 1 Peter 3, where a wife of an unbelieving husband is to still submit to her husband.

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And may win him over with her quiet and submissive conduct. But then it says in 1

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Peter 3, 7 that a husband is to love his wife as the weaker vessel. So he especially showing compassion and tenderness to his wife.

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Right. These are the instructions we have in scripture. A wife submitting to her husband. A husband loving his wife sacrificially.

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That's the way that it should be. So any kind of abuse, whether you're talking about verbal abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, is sinful.

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It's always wrong. Definitely. But is it a reason for divorce? Probably not. But at the same time, probably.

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Now you could get divorced if you think it's a matter of saving your own life.

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So the abuse has gotten so bad, you fear for the safety of yourself and for your children.

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Well in such a case, yeah, you probably would need to leave your spouse. But we don't see in scripture that there is permission to get remarried.

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Right. Now if you're going to. So anyway, you would get divorced out of a matter of protection.

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But then you should hope to be able to reconcile with your spouse. So hopefully they're going to repent and you would be able to reconcile the marriage.

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Right. That's what you hope would happen. There doesn't seem to be anything permissive in scripture to divorce an abusive spouse and then you're free to go get remarried.

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Right. That doesn't seem to be the case. Now whether or not you can divorce your abusive spouse, that really should be a matter that is left up to the church.

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Maybe the abuse has not gone to the level of being against the law.

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Like the cops are not going to step in and arrest that guy or even that gal. There have been abusive wives also.

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Read Mez McConnell's book. Is there anybody out there or The Creaking on the

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Stairs where he talks about the abuse that he experienced by his stepmother. So there are women out there that can be just as abusive as men are.

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Yes. I counseled a guy one time who was being abused by his wife who was an alcoholic.

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And she was abusing him and her children also. But more often than not when we talk about abuse in a marriage, usually it's the guy doing it to the wife.

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Right. Right. So there's nothing in scripture that says that abuse is a reason for divorce.

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If you do get divorced for something like that, I would say follow the instruction of your elders.

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You should talk to your elders at the church about this. Before you decide it's over.

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Right. Before you pull the plug on it and get out. Now, if it's already a life -threatening situation, we'll call the police.

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Definitely. And then the church needs to do what it can do to help put the one being abused and children, if they're involved, in a safe place.

29:56

Amen. And the church should not ever judge somebody else who's being abused for that situation.

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Like, well, what did she do to bring that on or did they deserve it or something like that. The church should do what it needs to do to try to help one another in those situations.

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But just be careful about using passages like that to justify divorce.

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You know, it's kind of like, as long as I feel like I'm being abused, I can just fall back on 1

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Corinthians 7 .15 and get divorced. I think you need to come to your elders.

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You need to talk to somebody at your church about that, about your situation. And it could be the kind of a thing where the church may not even be aware of what's going on.

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I know it's really hard to talk about these kinds of things. Yes. But you need to be able to. It's very humbling. Yes.

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And so that the church then can confront whoever the abuser is in that marriage and call them to repentance.

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Right. And then after continued attempts to try to get the abuser to repent.

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And if they don't repent, and it goes through this church disciplinary process then of Matthew 18 to then coming before the church and they have to be removed.

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Because after a continued attempt to get a brother or sister to repent and they don't repent.

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Let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. They might need to be removed from the church having shown to be somebody who really is not a believer.

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Right. Yeah. And then if that happens, then you can look at 1 Corinthians 7 .15

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as if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so in such cases. The brother or sister is not enslaved.

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God has called you to peace. Then the church has therefore declared, well, this brother or sister is truly an unbeliever.

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But of course, we also have there in 1 Corinthians 7, if the unbeliever consents to stay with you, then you need to remain with them.

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I know these things can be really complicated. Which is why you need, every situation is different.

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So you need that counsel. Yes. Of people that know you. That's right. And having the church involved.

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I mean, we should not be making huge life decisions like this and nobody in the church knows what's going on or that you're making these kinds of decisions.

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Right. This is being brothers and sisters in the Lord together and helping to encourage and admonish one another as we're instructed to do in Colossians 3 .16.

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Definitely. And you can't do it without counsel. Yes. Right. I mean, you know, not like, oh,

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I'm going to go gossip about this. Don't talk to that kind of crowd.

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But go to some people who you admire, who you know is walking with the

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Lord and who has possibly even been there in that situation before.

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I mean, that helps tremendously. And definitely a pastor in there, at least one.

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And just as much counsel as you can surrounding yourself with wise counsel.

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Right. And when I say, you know, take it to the church, I don't mean jumping in on it.

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Standing in front of everybody. I'm being abused. I've done an announcement. Yes. That's not what I mean.

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But that you would come to a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, an elder, somebody like that. And inform them as to what's going on.

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I've had a situation before where we as elders were helping somebody in a very serious home situation and no one in the church had to know about it.

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It did not have to be a whole congregational thing. Right. Although I do think that it got to the point where we were saying, hey, just letting you know there's some difficult things that are going on at home.

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Be encouraging. Be uplifting. Right. And know these things are being taken care of by those who are close to the situation and know what it is that's going on.

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So it's hard to keep some of those things secret. And it surrounds you with prayer, too. Yes. And I mean, what's better?

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I mean, what could be better than being surrounded with prayer and being looked out for?

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Them having you in their best. Getting tongue tied?

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Yeah, my words are failing. Best interest. How do I word this? Having your best interest in mind.

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There we go. Yes. That's it. So anyway, it just helps. It encourages you because when you're in that situation, it's hard to focus on the

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Bible and learning more and gleaning from it and praying a serious heartfelt prayer and not being distracted by all of your thoughts and worries and stuff like that.

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And it just – it does help calm you into knowing that God is still there and he is walking you through this.

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Yeah, like going back to Psalm 13 that we read just a little bit ago. That's exactly where I was thinking. Right. So knowing that there's a struggle, it's difficult to focus, but holding fast to the promises of Christ.

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And in those moments, in those situations where you find it very difficult to pray, that's especially when you want other people praying for you.

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Exactly. Lifting up prayers and supplications and intercessions on behalf of others.

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As the Apostle Paul instructs us to do in the church in 1 Timothy 2, that prayers be lifted up on behalf of all people so that we are praying for one another.

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As it says in James 1 .5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to you.

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But let him ask in faith without doubting. So any situation like this, especially something that is huge and monumental that's going on in your life, you need to ask of God.

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Right. And you need to pray with others as well that you may gain wisdom in the midst of this situation and knowing what the best course of action would be and the action that would be most honoring to God.

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Amen. Not what you want to have. Here's what I would really like to have happen right now in this moment.

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It may be really, really difficult to continue to stick through it with your spouse, whatever the situation might be, but do first and foremost what is honoring unto

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Christ. Not what the culture says. Right. Not what you want to have happen. Do what honors the

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Lord. Because, I mean, in the couples that we know that have worked through horrible situations, they have come out on the other side when the offending side repents.

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Right. Mind you. They have come out on the other side and they have had much, much better relationship with each other and with the

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Lord. And they're just stronger as a marriage. And it's worth that extra effort in honoring

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God through marriage. Yeah. If possible. I think we've all been through some kind of a situation where we've had to work through something with someone who was in sin.

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It's just a lot harder when it's your spouse. Yeah. Because you are one flesh with one another.

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Right. There's nobody in the world you are closer to. If you're married, there's no one you're closer to than your spouse.

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And so when it's your spouse that's sinning and you're having to go through that with your spouse, that's a whole different dynamic than when you're going through it with a flesh and blood brother or sister or with a parent or with a friend.

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Going through it with your spouse, it could be all the above. That's somebody who is a parent and is a brother or sister in the

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Lord and is a friend. And you guys are having to go through these things together.

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And it's difficult. And it's difficult. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to put into words.

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It is. What something like that is even to experience. Okay. So what's our second question? That was it. I just said, yeah,

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I said that I felt like I could answer both in one attempt. So the first question was, do you think that's a hermeneutically proper application of 1

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Corinthians 7 .15? Okay. That was the first question. If not, is spousal abuse a biblically allowable reason for divorce?

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There we go. So there you go. Okay. There's our questions for today. Esquikiel is starting to make some noise down here.

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He's asleep now, though. But he's also a space heater. Yes. Like holding him here,

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I'm sweating. Yep. He does that. So we're going to wrap this up.

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And if you have any other questions you'd like to submit to the broadcast, our email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.

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Let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wisdom that you give to us according to your word.

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And I pray that we continue to hold fast to these promises. Seeking the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of man.

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Submitting unto your will, not to our own. And whatever it is that we're going through in this life, there's certainly something that we would like to have happen.

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We express that to you in our hearts. But ultimately, may we be able to pray like Christ and say not what

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I will, but what you will. We put our faith and trust in Jesus.

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We hold fast to the promises that we have in Christ. We know that you are with us always.

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And knowing these things, may we endure in whatever trials and situations we go through to the very end.

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So that we may stand with Christ in glory. And we may hear from you on that day that we come into your presence.

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Well done, good and faithful servant. Now great is your reward. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray in his name.

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Amen. Amen. That you may be richly blessed like us.

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Shh. Here's your teacher. Becky's going to take over because I'm holding a baby.