The Program Opens With A Call To Faithful Christian Witness
Abraham Hamilton III Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
Abraham Hamilton III This is the, Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite,
Abraham Hamilton III delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media and the philosophies
Abraham Hamilton III of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassadors even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment.
Abraham Hamilton III And now the Hamilton Corner.
Abraham Hamilton III Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner. Abraham Hamilton III here joined by producer extraordinaire, often imitated, never duplicated, the real J. Mac. And we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program.
Prioritize Family Discipleship To Push Back Cultural Darkness
At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you, are making your way from your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality. Understanding the primacy that God places on family and welcoming his view to govern, to guard and to guide your view, welcoming his instruction to aid us in understanding that, ah, what goes on in your house is far more important, far more important than what goes on in the White House. And we would welcome the Lord to transform us in our homes. There's no question as to what could happen in society. And much of what is happening in society is really nothing more than the reality of discipleship being brought to bear, but in a negative direction. Discipleship being provided, with the void fillers. As I said, darkness is not an affirmative force, but it does reoccupy the space that is vacated by the light. And when you have, you know, younger generations that are far more receptive, things like Marxism and, and are hospitable to things like Sharia law. Even though they don't understand it, they don't know what it is necessarily. And many of the young, Americans are not Muslims themselves. Yet they have been seduced by this oppressed, oppressor dynamic and find themselves to be valorous, superior human beings by protecting and upholding what they view as the marginalized and the discriminated against groups. Yet as Lennon said, many of them are useful idiots. Useful idiots. And I don't mean that as a pejorative. I mean it, where there are, as the Apostle Paul said, there's a zeal. But that zeal is not according to knowledge. Much of that has happened as a negative consequence of what has transpired affirmatively and what has not transpired due to negligence in the home but we can reverse that.
Family And Marriage Form The Foundation For Social Transformation
And I don't mean that to be, an overly broad statement. Of course there are exceptions to this. But I mean in a general sense, in a general sense, this is what we're talking about, you know. So as you're making your transition to your part time jobs, from, from your part time jobs to your full time job, first, I want to encourage you to embrace the reality that what you get to do in your home is a full time investment. In your part time jobs, you generate an income. But your full time job, your full time job is outcome cultivation. And the cultivation is what precedes the outcome. All, right. The first institution that God established, the first human institution was the family with marriage at the center. Before you ever had the Ten Commandments, before you ever had a NewSong Testament church, the first human institution was the family with marriage at the center. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined into his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. And what God has joined together, let no man tear it asunder. Guys, this is the foundation for mankind. This is the foundation for the Lord's church. This is the foundation for society. And if we would rediscover these, found these foundations, this foundation, I should say, and engage with in it, in submission to the lordship of Christ. We can see in our generation, tremendous transformation. But it has to come one person at a time, at a heart, mind and soul level. Person by person transformed into individuals. Build transformed families, transformed families, found transformed churches, transformed churches. Aid in transforming the societies in which they have been placed. We cannot seek to enjoy God's results by circumventing God's ways. If we want to enjoy the results that God makes available to us, we can only do so by yielding to and embracing God's ways. It's the old adage, seeking the Lord's hand as opposed to seeking his face. No, no, no. We need to seek his face. And in the process of seeking his face, the hand comes along with it. Of course, that's a, a figure of speech not meant to convey a corporeal body.
Proverbs Seven Warns Against Seduction And Adultery’s Consequences
To the word of God we go. Proverbs, chapter seven. And this is, important. This is pressing with the revelations of Jensen Huang, the Nvidia CEO, which, you know, we're learning. I'm learning that the information about his adulterous affair with the person being accused of being a Chinese spy was known about a year ago. Was known. Known about for a while sometimes. So why is this information becoming public now? And Jinxing Wong has announced his resignation, from his position as CEO of Nvidia, the largest chip manufacturer in the United States of America. but what led to all of these things transpiring? Well, the word of God has already given us warning and wisdom. Proverbs, chapter seven, verse 21. We'll read all the way through to verse 27. And this is what God's word says. With. With much seductive speech, she persuades him. With her smooth talk, she compels him. All at once he follows her. As an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast, till an arrow pierces its liver, as a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her past. For many a, victim she has laid low. And all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol going down to the chambers of death.
Men Must Guard Their Ears As Well As Their Eyes
What is a proverb writer talking about? Chapter 7 of the book of Proverbs deals with warnings against the adulterous. Warnings against the adulteress. The text begins by saying with seductive. With much seductive speech, she persuades him. I, point this out. I point this out to men when I get to minister to them. Because our society, especially with this pornography society that we live in, that you have many men being warned to have, to protect their eyes, you know, even have technology, software, covenant eyes, you know, and will communicate that men are visual. And, yes, men are visual, but we are not exclusively visual, which is why the word of God, not Dr. Phil, not Steve Harvey with a big mustache. Boy, you wild, boy. What? Boy, you're wild, boy. No. The word of God warns that the seductress makes a move, makes her appeal with much. Jeff, you all right over there, bro? What you say? What? Let me get a. Get an Afro. Pick from my mustache, y'. All. The word of God warns that the adulteress makes an appeal with much seductive speech. Speech. I tell men, not only are we to have covenant eyes, but we are to have covenant ears. And the covenant ears include refusing to yield them to illicit speech.
Seductive Words Can Destroy Marriage Family Ministry And Witness
That elicit speech comes in all kind of forms. Sometimes it comes woo, woo. Boy, I'm sure your wife appreciates you. Now, to the uninitiated, that might seem like an innocent, almost compliment. Not recognizing that that is the casting of the lore of the adulterers. Oh, if you were Mine, I'm sure. I bet it sure is hard for you, you know, because you get attention. So much seductive speech. With much seductive speech she persuades him. And with her smooth talk. Smooth talk. A lot of guys talking about, man, you be running game. Listen, the adulteress runs game the adulteress. With smooth talk she compels him. Now here's the thing. I heard it a long time ago. The seasoned saints would say sin to take you further than you ever intended to go, keep you longer than you ever intended to stay right with all of this seductive speech and smooth words. Verse 23 shows you and he the correspondent to the adulteress's smooth words. He does not know that it will cost him his life. He doesn't know that it will cost him his life. We have got to understand Jon 10 is accurate, that the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Regardless of the initial presentation, the objective ultimately is theft, murder and destruction. The adulteress ultimate finish him move is that it's going to cost him his life. Some instances it literally means costing, him his life. But most usually it means costing him the life that he has built up until that point. A decimation of his marriage, a decimation of his relationship with his children as a parent, a decimation of his life, his decimation of his witness. How many ministers have fallen to the adulterers? How much of the witness of Christ has been marred by people claiming to represent him, yet succumbing to the adulteress's words? How many young believers faith have been shipwrecked as a result of persons who the scripture says should be above reproach, a husband of one wife have fallen prey to the very thing that God warns us about in his word.
Adultery Undermines Marriage And Calls Men To Covenant Integrity
Ginseng Wang, CEO of Nvidia, one of the largest tech companies in America, one of the ones that are saying, yo, you're pushing for AI. We shouldn't limit it to these big corporations in this arms race with China, we should open it so that the everyday citizen can have direct access to AI and use it however they see fit, instead of having the most powerful versions of it only available behind certain paywalls. Could that be why we get some of this information out? Though the information was around, was, was known, publicized, years ago, perhaps. But it doesn't take away the truth of what the scripture warns, because there would be no story, there would be no revelation if Ginseng Wong had been confronted with the truth of Proverbs 7. You know, we had the thing and people made like funny jokes about it. When, you know, you had this company CEO and another lady, they're at the baseball game, I mean, at the concert or whatever, and they get shown on the, on the big screen and they snuggling, they canoodling till they're on screen. Now they're trying to dip and move. It's things like this that have become normalized. Why I say that the most desperate and the greatest need we have in America is for repentance. The marital union is the exclusive human institution that has been described in God's holy word as. As illustrative of Christ and his church. The only one you think that might be have something to do with why marriage is under attack so ferociously. In our culture, we must heed the word of God in verse 24 in Proverbs 7 when it says and now sons. Sons. That word, sons is plural. It's meant to apply to men broadly. Sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to the adulteress's ways. Do not stray into her past. For many a victim has she laid low. In all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol. Going down to the chambers of death. The chambers of death or the law. Losing of one's life often begins with succumbing to the adulteress's seductive speech and smooth words. If we're going to be men, we must be men of integrity. If we're going to be men, we must be men of covenant. Covenant with the Lord God first. First. And as we embrace holy matrimony, lifelong covenant with the bride of our youth.
Afa Appeal Leads Back To Biblical Foundations And Marriage
You.
It's m. The time of year when people start thinking more about giving gifts. But did you know AFA relies on your gifts throughout the year to help us continue to shine the light of Jesus in a dark world as the year winds down. Please consider giving a generous gift to AFA when you do request the free 10 pack of our new good tidings of great joy Christmas buttons. That's one to wear and nine to share. Visit afa.netgreatjoy to give today. Afa.netgreatjoy.
Abraham Hamilton III Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton iii. Here in light of the. The things we've been discussing, already, it's important that we highlight these things. The, the, the biblical foundations, the biblical basics that we. That should become a part of our normative experience that it shouldn't be a strange thing, to. For the believer to live according to the foundations of teaching. And it's sad that things like adultery have become so common that some people, even you, might be listening right now saying, well, why is Abe talking about this? You know, I mean. I mean, all right, Jensen Wang. Cheat on his wife. Okay. Could that be a part of the reason why we're at this place where we are, you know, to where, the breach of the marital bond has become such a common phenomenon that it's contributed to a. A degradation of the sanctity of the marital union that God would have us to adhere to.
Maria Hamilton Connects Strong Marriages With Strong Homes
My lovely wife, Maria Hamilton, is joining me for today's program. Babe, you heard me discussing Proverbs 7 and the biblical admonition warning against the adulteress. And in particular, two things. One, that the ultimate objective. I'm sorry, the ultimate conclusion for entertaining the adulteress is the loss of one's life. That's what the scripture warns against. And secondarily, or in addition, not secondarily, but additionally, the scripture gives us keen insight to recognize that we should not only be worried about having covenant eyes, but men should be keen to the seductive words. Seductive, seductive speech. And the smooth words of the adulterers. What is your reaction to what you heard me share in that first segment?
Maria Hamilton Yeah, so again, when we take God at his word, right, like, when we consider what God has already said, and the gravity of those words. Because it's so common in our nation, though, and in our. In our culture and in our world, you know, for people to cheat on their spouses or for divorces to happen and homes to be broken, it just seems like it's not that big of a deal, right? Like, it's not that big that's that bad of a situation. Because it's so common around us, brokenness has been, like, normalized. But when we read the word of God and we see at the end that the end is death, we don't really think about it like that normally, though. And we should, right? Biblically, we should. And so for us, that, you know, trust God, love Jesus, are called to be his not only hands and feet, but the illustration to the world of what Of Christ's commitment to his bride and his bride's commitment to Christ. we must take his word seriously. We must. And so to your question that you posed just a little while ago about. Is that why we're here? Like, could that be why we're here in our nation and how dark things are getting. And even like you know, Tuesday's election and all of that. When we, when we last
Abraham Hamilton III Tuesday.
Maria Hamilton Last Tuesday, yes.
Abraham Hamilton III Feel like it'd been a lifetime.
Maria Hamilton I
Abraham Hamilton III know
Maria Hamilton that's true. when we peel back right when we, when we undo and we really go down to like what the root causes are and then what the solution is. Like we talked about last time where discipleship need to be made and we need to have, we need to understand what it means to be a disciple and to make a disciple. We got to go back to the home and we got to go back to the central component of what makes a strong home. And it is a strong marriage. And so the enemy, through seduction and through the deceit because he is the father of lies, uses this very notion to divide and to break and to destroy. And when a marriage is weak and, or destroyed, the children are injured and the home is broken. And then darkness is easily, received, you know, or it easily takes over. And so that's, we have the society that we have because of that, you know, not solely because of that, but that is a great tactic of the enemy that's been very successful. So we live in brokenness, we live amongst brokenness, we live amongst marriages that are weak at best, especially in the church, a lot of brokenness even in the church, you know, and then we have the results that we have and then we want to elect people that come from brokenness and are broken themselves and advanced brokenness in marriage. But we want them to fix our problems.
Marriage Is A Mission Station For Generational Christian Discipleship
Abraham Hamilton III So much, that you said, I want to respond to, but I'm trying to take it piece by piece. you've heard me say, because you live with me, we've been married almost 18 years now, that Satan does not like to contend with full grown opposition. He wants to try to preemptively undermine God's work and particularly preemptively, attack the vehicle for God's work. God's image bears his disciples. I use the example, the examples. There's a prophecy of a deliverer coming to Egypt. What's the satanic response through Pharaoh? Let's murder the baby boys. There's a promised Messiah coming to Israel. What's the demonic response through Herod? Let's murder all the baby boys. The first institution that God established and tasked with the responsibility for multi generational discipleship is the family with marriage at the center. But if you're going to use undermine the mission station, that is the Family and to attempt to counteract disciples being made in Christ like formation. Well, what's the strategy? Hm. Attack identity, attack maleness, attack femaleness, but also attack marriages.
Maria Hamilton Yes,
Abraham Hamilton III and when I say attack marriages, I'm not talking about talking exclusively about circumstances with adultery. Not exclusively about. About situations, that are often the most commonly described. I'm also including the phenomenon where you have people that are living as roommates. They remain married, but they're living in the same home, but they're living as roommates. They're not functioning as a oneness unit. They're just functioning in a parallel system and universe as roommates. All of those things undermine the potency of what God established a marital union to be. What he has joined together, let no man tear asunder.
Maria Hamilton What does it mean? What does that mean, man? You know, when we, when we make disciples, when we are called to be disciples, we must understand what God means. What did he intend to write. When we are making disciples, we must also teach the children what God meant. Because there is one interpretation of Scripture, and it is what God meant to say and what he intended to write through the authors.
Oneness Means Building A Shared Life And Mission Together
And so what does that mean to be one? What does that mean that no man will tear asunder? Like, what does that actually mean? And what does it look like in practice? And I think that, in Christianity throughout, not, I don't want to make black and statements, but. But throughout the generations, it seems like there has been a portion of the church that thinks that it's just don't divorce. Just don't divorce. But they miss the affirmative. Like, what? How do we build a strong marriage? How do we build a. The oneness that. That is unbreakable, that the en has no room to come and tear apart, you know, excuse me. And so what does that look like? What does that mean? So when. When the Lord says. And Jesus repeated it, you know, and quoted from Genesis where he says, you know, a man should leave his father, mother and cleave to his wife, and the two become one flesh. what does that mean? And what does that look like? So the two becoming one flesh. Clearly we don't stop being ourselves, but we create one. One unity. We create one concept. I don't know what we're to use there, because it's not like Abe stops being Abe and Maria stops being Maria, and then we just kind of like. Or that we blend together to become this, like, Abram Maria. That's like a amalgamation or whatever, however you want to call it. no, because it's the Two with the strengths and the weaknesses, the wisdom or everything that comes with me and you. Sanctified. Continuously sanctified. And that becomes. Yeah. And that becomes one thing. One thing. Right. That does not get torn apart. A unit. A unit that is not comprised of two separate, ones individually traveling, but there is a one unit that travels, that does life together, that does the mission, that accomplishes the mission that God calls us to. To accomplish together as the one unit.
Mutual Submission To Christ Helps Spouses Resolve Differences
So. So one of the things I hate just inviting the audience to our living room. One of the things I hate the most is disagreeing with you. Like us having a disagreement, seeing things differently and, and not being on the same page right now. That's not something that is. That, that is unusual when there's two people coming together. Like literally you are you and I am me. And we come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different experiences or whatever. And even people that come. You will. You would have different. Different, you would have different
Abraham Hamilton III people. You're gonna have different perspectives.
Maria Hamilton Correct? Correct. So. But I hate it. And why do I hate it? I hate it. Because one unit is of the same mind. And that mind is the mind of Christ. Holy Spirit does not disagree with itself. The God. God. The Godhead does not disagree with itself. Right now we're not God, but we are to emulate and imitate the Lord. So we don't need to disagree now. Yes, we have different perspectives, but we come together and we say what are we. Going to agree on? What is it that we are going to accomplish? What is it that we are going to move forward on? What
Abraham Hamilton III is our decision? What
Maria Hamilton is our. Exactly.
Abraham Hamilton III Phenomenon.
Maria Hamilton Yes. When it comes to responding to children, when it comes to what we're doing next month or whatever. Whatever plans we
Abraham Hamilton III are with our in laws.
Maria Hamilton What we're doing with our in laws. Yes. What is our plan? I believe that's how the Lord operates. That's how he reveals himself in his character. And that is because we are the illustration of Christ and his bride to the lost. We are the marital
Abraham Hamilton III union.
Maria Hamilton The marital union, exactly. Thank you. that we are to represent that in this world. Again, we will have disagreements, but we have to come together and say, what are we going to do? What is our plan going forward? And of course there's a lot of you respecting my position, but also there's a lot of submission to your position because I understand that you are wise and that you're seeking God. Ultimately though, I think the strengthening of the marriage, though, will be laid upon the strength of each party's submission to Christ. So you will lead our home and you will lead me in our marriage. Well, when you submit and follow the Lord fully, and I will help you, honor you, submit to you, contribute to our unit. If my relationship with the Lord is strong,
Abraham Hamilton III I think that is something that is, unfortunately not attended to sufficiently. Because one of the purposes of the marital union is to aid in the cultivation of each other's relationship with the Lord. Like, you should be a better follower of Christ as a result of being married to me. I should be a better follower of Christ of being married to you. So what you're saying that the foundation for marital strength really is going to be built upon the strength of each marital, component, the husband and the wife's relationship with the Lord and submission to
Maria Hamilton him.
Abraham Hamilton III So where problems arise between the spouses, it usually is, a highlight or exemplifying a deficiency in one or both spouses individual relationships with the Lord.
Maria Hamilton Yes. And to your point before, where you participate, contribute very much, are invested in my growth, my walk with the Lord, my sanctification. Areas where you see that I'm a little wobbly. Hold on, let's shore this up. areas that you see that are maybe an expression of pain or an expression of. Of not trusting God or of fear, you come in and you shore that up. And likewise, if I'm seeing areas or
Abraham Hamilton III a life pattern that you might have developed. Sinful life, Parent. Correct. Or before having additional biblical revelation. Yes, the area,
Maria Hamilton yes. And we have done a lot of that, like all those surgeries, you know, throughout the years that we've had to do. and likewise myself as a helper, like, areas in you, that man, have you prayed about that or like, consider this because the enemy may be trying to, you know, ah, throw a curveball at us. And so we, we help one another.
Sanctification And Humility Sustain Intimacy And Marital Unity
I'm invested in your walk. I've always said from the beginning. And now that I, you know, 18 years in and like, you know, more sanctified than before. I, used to say, you know, the moment I start worrying about our marriage is the moment you stop praying or the moment you stop, you know, reading your word or being, you know, submitting to the Lord and following the Lord or hearing his voice. And that is still true. I didn't realize the magnitude of that at the time, honestly, at first, you know, because I didn't come from a home where I saw that happening. And so now even more, I stand on that. Like, I trust you. I trust your walk with God. Because I see your commitment to the Lord. I'm not you. Right. But we're one unit. And so I trust your wisdom and I trust your leadership and I trust that you hear from God. And, you have demonstrated that. And likewise, I hope that with my sanctification you trust my hearing from God and my desire to be holy and godly and my quickness to repent. You know, the same for you. So like, we see these attributes in each other because the Lord has been worked. Has been working in us and we desire to be worked on, if you will. Right. So I think because of that, that contributes to the strengthening of our marriage. Right. But then we have to protect that.
Abraham Hamilton III Yeah. And. And I think this is so important because a lot of people want to talk about, you know, marital strength and relationships and they want to start kind of at the romantic comedy kind of assessment. Hm,
Maria Hamilton yeah.
Abraham Hamilton III You know, but. But not dig. Delve deep enough into, individual sanctification. Before the Lord are we walking upright before the Lord are we broken and contrite before the Lord are we slow to speak and quick to listen before the Lord are we quick to repent, to humble ourselves before the Lord? To those features are what is going to strengthen our interaction with our spouses.
Maria Hamilton Yes.
Abraham Hamilton III And you said something earlier I want to go back to. I know we're getting close to the end of the segment. you say, what does that mean when the two become one? the scriptures communication does refer to the physical conjugal union between a husband and a wife. But that is also meant to be reflective of the oneness between the two outside of the.
Maria Hamilton The bedroom. That's correct.
Abraham Hamilton III The physical mat. The physical intimacy component. But there is an intimacy that endures beyond the physical components that is. That is far more expansive and that it's far more encompassing that, that. That must persist. That will facilitate the physical expression of it. Well, that would. It will literally just be the physical expression of an enduring intimacy reality that is shared between the husband and the wife. In contrary to what many people realize is directly, built upon the sanctification between the individuals in walking upright before the Lord in personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maria Hamilton Yeah. I think it's important that we understand to honor that we have to honor that intimacy, honor that relationship as we honor the Lord.
Abraham Hamilton III So let's get into that when we come back for the next segment. How do we best go about honoring that intimacy as a feature of our submission, to the lordship of Jesus Christ? You are listening to and or watching the Hamilton Corner I'm here with my wife Maria Hamilton and we are discussing the oneness that God affords us in marriage so that we won't continue to see the Jensen Huang phenomenon. M in the Lord's church. The world is going to world. So I don't have an expectation for them that is beyond them being worldly wild. But for the body of Christ man. Let the world world, but let us live in the Word. Hello, I'm Abraham Hamilton iii.
Hebrews Calls Everyone To Honor Marriage And Reject Its Degradation
Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist.
Abraham Hamilton III That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netgive that's afr.net give.
Abraham Hamilton III The Hamilton quarter podcast and one minute commentaries are available at afr.net back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton iii, along with my guest Maria Hamilton. And we are discussing the necessity of protecting the marital union. We started off in Proverbs chapter 7 with the biblical warnings against the adulteress and her smooth words. You don't often hear people talk about the smooth words of the adulteress, but the word of God does not discuss that. And before we went to the break, Maria, you mentioned the necessity of honoring, the oneness that God affords us in marriage. And you wanted to point to, in addition to
Maria Hamilton this. Yes. So in Hebrews 13, verse 4, and we use this verse often when we're talking about adultery. Who
Abraham Hamilton III is we?
Maria Hamilton I know, you're right. the church people, the Christians. Christians. And we hear it a lot, you know, and about adultery and about, inviting things into the bedroom that are, you know, lustful or sinful. We use the letter part of this verse. But it starts off like this. In verse 4 of Hebrews 13, marriage is to be held in honor among all. And the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers. God will judge. And it is. It's funny because that verse, it's in Hebrews and he's talking about other behaviors, right? Like just. And then he throws that one in there for marriage. but marriage is to be honored among all men, like all peoples. Right. We don't honor marriage anymore in
Abraham Hamilton III our nation on that for a bit. If we don't start
Maria Hamilton with that.
Abraham Hamilton III Marriage should be held in high esteem and high regard amongst all people.
Maria Hamilton Yes.
Abraham Hamilton III Again, amongst unmarried people, amongst married people, amongst our society. And we used to have this.
Maria Hamilton Yes,
Abraham Hamilton III as a society. But it's been degraded.
Maria Hamilton That's right. That's
Abraham Hamilton III our modern culture.
Maria Hamilton And so the degradation of it. The enemy has been skilled, very effective at degrading it, at belittling it. It's just a piece of paper. We don't need it. it's shackles. you're not going to be happy. At best, in the church where just two people, you know, roommates, man, that's demonic. That leads to death. Death of a people. That's what the Lord says. So, yes, we don't invite. We don't allow for adultery. We don't allow for fornication. We don't invite things that are undefiled into our union.
Abraham Hamilton III Things that are defiled.
Maria Hamilton I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Things that are defiling. We don't invite that because we honor it. And why do we honor it? Because God says, but also because he has designed it to be an illustration to the lost. So if we in the church are allowing it to be degraded, to be, ridiculed, to be. To be seen as not as important, it's not a big deal. We're having babies, but we're not getting married. If we allow that in the church, we are going to be, teaming up with the enemy and advancing his agenda. And then we get surprised why there's so much darkness and why there's so much pain and brokenness and why the gospel needs to be preached even more like it's destructive. And that's what the enemy has, planned out and what he's executing and what is what he's accomplishing in our nation, in our culture, and in the church in America. this is such a rare topic, you know, at best is discussed in marriage conferences, you know, and those are great. but it needs to be a regular discussion. Marriage is to be honored among all. Marriage is to be honored among everyone, you know, whether they're little kids or they're older people, whether there's people that has been divorced or whether there's people that's been hurt, honored by all men.
Abraham Hamilton III So what do you think are some things that should be done or that need to be done in order, for marriage to be honored?
Maria Hamilton Well, first we gotta go back to the word of God. we have to understand God's design for marriage, like the purpose for marriage, but also the maleness and femaleness of marriage. The fact that it's one man and one woman with the ability to reproduce, that is marriage. And that's the only definition of marriage, that is the only thing that classifies as marriage with
Abraham Hamilton III capacity to reproduce. Because even if you have some people. That's
Maria Hamilton exactly right. That's exactly what the capacity. That's right, because we were designed that way. We live in a fallen world, right? But we were designed that way. And that's what marriage is. And that is what makes a strong family. And a strong family makes a strong church, and a strong church makes a strong civilization and so on. but we have to start there. And so what God declares to be honorable is indeed honorable. We think our thoughts after his. We don't come up with our own ideas of righteousness, our own ideas of what marriage is. We submit our thoughts to His. He's the intelligent mind, you know? And so it's unfortunate that we have not done that in the church, and we've allowed adultery to be. To run rampant in the pews and from the pulpit. the church has allowed that. And so there needs to be repentance. And going back to what the Lord has designed in marriage, it's horrific what we're seeing, you know, and then we're surprised, but we shouldn't be surprised. We got to go back to what the Lord has said.
Repentance And Daily Sanctification Protect Marital Relationships
How do we protect our marriages so that the enemy doesn't come in? We protect our marriage by continuing to, grow in intimacy with the Lord and in intimacy with one another. Can, I share an anecdote real quick? It's about me, so don't worry.
Abraham Hamilton III you're good.
Maria Hamilton Let me tell you. So there's been a lot of sanctification. I always say that my husband is more holy because he's married to me. Hey, it is very true.
Abraham Hamilton III That's her way to tell y'. All. She mess up all the time.
Maria Hamilton Listen, it's real. It's real in these streets. Okay, let me tell you why. we both grew up in, environments where there was a lot of, deficiencies. And on my side, I did not see a healthy marriage, unfortunately, growing up, and I also did not grow up in church. So then once I am confronted with my sin, and I'm also confronted with my worldly ideologies in many areas of life, I started repenting. Thank you, Lord, for softening my heart. Right? And, the more I repented, the more I saw the depravity in my heart and the wrong thinking in regards to marriage and what it looked like to be a wife. I didn't know how to be a wife. Anyways, long story short, let me get to the point.
Abraham Hamilton III You do a real good job of it, I got to tell
Maria Hamilton you. Hey, praise God. Praise the Lord. so. But let me tell you. So I had to. There had to be a lot of surgeries, a lot of circumcisions in my heart. One of the things that I will just very plainly come on and say. When I first met you, my mouth was filthy. Okay? I used to curse because
Abraham Hamilton III I didn't know what you was about to say. I
Maria Hamilton know, I know. It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be all right. So I, used to curse because I did not understand how to show emotion and talk about very passionate things without using vulgarity because I didn't know, you know, in the world that's how people talk. And I was coming out of the world anyway, so I would curse a lot, and you would be like, ugh, you know, like, what are you doing? And I. Because at the time I was being sanctified, the Lord was showing me things about myself. I would get really convicted about that. But that's the power of the Holy Spirit. It was not just me being in front of a holy guy because I thought he was holy. at the time, it was the spirit of God convicted me. But
Abraham Hamilton III I was told at the time,
Maria Hamilton no, you're holy still. you're still holy. But I really was convicted, and I would get convicted. And through, that time period of my life, there was a lot of pruning. And it was so wonderful. There was a lot of truth being revealed. There was a lot of pruning. There was a lot of correction that was brought to me. And honestly, it wasn't necessarily you preaching at me. It was the spirit of God convicting me of sin. As I read the Word and as I heard you preaching, and as you know, we would sit in Bible study together, it was. There was a lot of pruning. Anyway, so. So I hated. I started to hate that way of speaking, okay. To the point where I remember watching TV and seeing and hearing the vulgarities and saying, like, it, like. Kind of making me, you know, like, a little bit uncomfortable where before that was. That's how I lived, you know, like, it was strange, but it was the power of the Lord. Anyways, long story short, here we are 18 years later, and, my husband, who was wonderful in all his ways, we get into a discussion and a disagreement about something, and my flesh rose up in me. And, a bad word came out of my mouth. I could not believe it. Why am I Sharing this because the Holy Spirit is active in our lives and the sanctification is a continual thing. But we must not think little of our fallenness. We must not think small of the flesh in us. We must hate what God hates and love what God loves. And God hates a filthy mouth. And so when that was, like, the thought that I had and the word blurted out, I immediately. You didn't even say anything to me. I immediately felt the conviction of the Spirit of God, and I was tore up. Not merely because I didn't insult you with it. It wasn't like a. I didn't call you a name or anything like that, but the word came out just out of anger and out of hurt. and I felt so convicted. I feel so convicted. It was. It was a. Oh, God, that's still. The filth is still in me. Like, after all these years, makes me want to cry. After all these years of sanctification, why is. Why is filth still in me? And I know a lot of wives can relate to this, right? Because. And we can use a lot of excuses, hormones. We can use times of the month. We can use pains and heartaches and. And daddy issues and all the things. We can use all those things. But we cannot allow for this filth to be. For it to be justified or to be normalized. We must hate what God hates. And God hates a filthy mouth. I'm using this anecdote to explain that we are to be sanctified. I'm, To be sanctified. You're to be sanctified. We are being sanctified. The Lord is convicting us of sin. Sin is being removed. We are made new. We are, being. Our minds are being renewed. And also, like we are less, we sin less, right. As we continue to mature in the Lord by the glory of God. Thank you, Jesus, for that. But there are times when we come face to face with ourselves in the mirror and we see the filthiness that is in us still because we are growing from glory to glory. But we have not arrived at perfection yet. So we must crucify the flesh. We must crucify the flesh. So in our oneness and in our intimacy and in our unity, and when we are having these discussions that may start off as disagreements, but we are to come to the same page. Where. Where are we going to arrive at? What is going to be our plan of action, if you will, going forward, if there is sin that is exposed. Oh, God. The first one to feel that shouldn't be the husband Saying to the wife, hey, whoa, what was that about? It should be the culprit. It should be the one where the sin is exposed to come and say, oh, God, forgive me, this is so atrocious. And repent when there needs to be repentance. Contrition needs to be something that is that we walk in, you know, humility should be something we walk in, instead of feeling right, you know, self righteous or justified in our sin because he has and because he no, we should repent. And God is honored and glorified in that.
Humility And Godly Conduct Make Marriage Holy And Strong
And he continues to purify us and to prune us, you know, so I'm just sharing that because it's not a pretty story, but it's one that shows contrition rightly versus standing our ground and wanting to fight in pride, you know,
Abraham Hamilton III and meaning, since you shared that story, then what, in that circumstance, what's my response, right? Do I come in, like, with a finger wagging and the condemnation, or do I create an environment, that is conducive to the contrition and repentance that you're talking about, or do I use that to my advantage to make my point and justify myself against that? Because you're not realizing if I would have done that, I would be compounding the injury causing you to begin to be distrusting of me. That in your most vulnerable state, that you're not aware that I'll be willing to protect you even in your most vulnerable state, no matter what the discussion might have been about. You know, for the longest, we've always said, I would always say in the middle of a disagreement, you are more important to me than whatever this issue is. So the issue is secondary to me than you. But it has to be, a feature of, of centrality to the union. And what we don't realize is so often there are lots of different ways that it arises and lots of different contexts that brings it to the fore. But when you get right down to it, a lot of marital difficulty is nothing other than pride.
Maria Hamilton Yeah, it
Abraham Hamilton III is nothing other than pride. A refusal to humble oneself. This is why I'm saying, and you're saying that the most necessary ingredient to a strong marriage is individuals living in humility and submission before the Lord.
Maria Hamilton That's right. That's right. When. When I sin in our marriage or when you sin in our marriage, we sin against God. We sin against God. David said that when he was confronted with the whole thing about Bathsheba, he says, oh, God, I have sinned against you and you alone. Have sinned. Yes, he sinned against Uriah and did all that, but he sinned against God. I sinned against God. When I injure you or when I. When I do anything that is. That is sinful, I sin against God first. Likewise, when you sin. And so it's. Lord, help us not to sin against you, to honor you so much, to keep you, at the forefront of our minds, in our. When we are thinking thoughts, when we're developing what we're going to say to one another, when we're relating to one another. How do we protect intimacy? Honor God. Honor God in the way we speak. Honor God in the way we think about one another. Honor God. I always say this, and the Lord showed me this a while back, man. And it's so important. It is easy for you to. To look at me in my sin. It is easy for me to look at you in your sin. Because we are humanistic at times, we allow ourselves to reduce. We allow our thinking to be reduced to humanism. But. And it is harder, which is why we need the spirit of God to see ourselves. For me to see you and for you to see me through the lens of Christ. How does God see you? You are his son. How dare I injure you? I am his daughter. How dare you injure me? But it is not because of me or you. It's because of the Lord. Right? So I think it's one way. It is spiritual. It is huge. But it is also practical because we are to act upon this daily. How do we protect our union? How do we protect our intimacy? How do we protect our oneness? It is honoring God first, hating what God hates, loving what God loves, honoring each other because we honor him, not wanting to sin against Him. Mm.
Abraham Hamilton III Within the intimate confines of marriage, our spouses are our first and most immediate externalized outpost for the reality of our relationship individually with our Lord.
Maria Hamilton Amen.
Abraham Hamilton III The relationship that we have with our Lord will be most immediately reflected in the way we interact with and treat our spouse. Said very simply, if I'm a man of God, that godliness will be most immediately reflected in the way that I interact with you and I serve you and I communicate with you. The same is true in the converse. If we want strong marriages, we can't just have matrimony. It must be holy matrimony.
Jeff Chamblee The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
The Program Opens With A Call To Faithful Christian Witness
Abraham Hamilton III Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
Abraham Hamilton III This is the, Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite,
Abraham Hamilton III delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media and the philosophies
Abraham Hamilton III of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassadors even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment.
Abraham Hamilton III And now the Hamilton Corner.
Abraham Hamilton III Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner. Abraham Hamilton III here joined by producer extraordinaire, often imitated, never duplicated, the real J. Mac. And we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program.
Prioritize Family Discipleship To Push Back Cultural Darkness
At this very moment, many of you, if not most of you, are making your way from your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality. Understanding the primacy that God places on family and welcoming his view to govern, to guard and to guide your view, welcoming his instruction to aid us in understanding that, ah, what goes on in your house is far more important, far more important than what goes on in the White House. And we would welcome the Lord to transform us in our homes. There's no question as to what could happen in society. And much of what is happening in society is really nothing more than the reality of discipleship being brought to bear, but in a negative direction. Discipleship being provided, with the void fillers. As I said, darkness is not an affirmative force, but it does reoccupy the space that is vacated by the light. And when you have, you know, younger generations that are far more receptive, things like Marxism and, and are hospitable to things like Sharia law. Even though they don't understand it, they don't know what it is necessarily. And many of the young, Americans are not Muslims themselves. Yet they have been seduced by this oppressed, oppressor dynamic and find themselves to be valorous, superior human beings by protecting and upholding what they view as the marginalized and the discriminated against groups. Yet as Lennon said, many of them are useful idiots. Useful idiots. And I don't mean that as a pejorative. I mean it, where there are, as the Apostle Paul said, there's a zeal. But that zeal is not according to knowledge. Much of that has happened as a negative consequence of what has transpired affirmatively and what has not transpired due to negligence in the home but we can reverse that.
Family And Marriage Form The Foundation For Social Transformation
And I don't mean that to be, an overly broad statement. Of course there are exceptions to this. But I mean in a general sense, in a general sense, this is what we're talking about, you know. So as you're making your transition to your part time jobs, from, from your part time jobs to your full time job, first, I want to encourage you to embrace the reality that what you get to do in your home is a full time investment. In your part time jobs, you generate an income. But your full time job, your full time job is outcome cultivation. And the cultivation is what precedes the outcome. All, right. The first institution that God established, the first human institution was the family with marriage at the center. Before you ever had the Ten Commandments, before you ever had a NewSong Testament church, the first human institution was the family with marriage at the center. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined into his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. And what God has joined together, let no man tear it asunder. Guys, this is the foundation for mankind. This is the foundation for the Lord's church. This is the foundation for society. And if we would rediscover these, found these foundations, this foundation, I should say, and engage with in it, in submission to the lordship of Christ. We can see in our generation, tremendous transformation. But it has to come one person at a time, at a heart, mind and soul level. Person by person transformed into individuals. Build transformed families, transformed families, found transformed churches, transformed churches. Aid in transforming the societies in which they have been placed. We cannot seek to enjoy God's results by circumventing God's ways. If we want to enjoy the results that God makes available to us, we can only do so by yielding to and embracing God's ways. It's the old adage, seeking the Lord's hand as opposed to seeking his face. No, no, no. We need to seek his face. And in the process of seeking his face, the hand comes along with it. Of course, that's a, a figure of speech not meant to convey a corporeal body.
Proverbs Seven Warns Against Seduction And Adultery’s Consequences
To the word of God we go. Proverbs, chapter seven. And this is, important. This is pressing with the revelations of Jensen Huang, the Nvidia CEO, which, you know, we're learning. I'm learning that the information about his adulterous affair with the person being accused of being a Chinese spy was known about a year ago. Was known. Known about for a while sometimes. So why is this information becoming public now? And Jinxing Wong has announced his resignation, from his position as CEO of Nvidia, the largest chip manufacturer in the United States of America. but what led to all of these things transpiring? Well, the word of God has already given us warning and wisdom. Proverbs, chapter seven, verse 21. We'll read all the way through to verse 27. And this is what God's word says. With. With much seductive speech, she persuades him. With her smooth talk, she compels him. All at once he follows her. As an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast, till an arrow pierces its liver, as a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her past. For many a, victim she has laid low. And all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol going down to the chambers of death.
Men Must Guard Their Ears As Well As Their Eyes
What is a proverb writer talking about? Chapter 7 of the book of Proverbs deals with warnings against the adulterous. Warnings against the adulteress. The text begins by saying with seductive. With much seductive speech, she persuades him. I, point this out. I point this out to men when I get to minister to them. Because our society, especially with this pornography society that we live in, that you have many men being warned to have, to protect their eyes, you know, even have technology, software, covenant eyes, you know, and will communicate that men are visual. And, yes, men are visual, but we are not exclusively visual, which is why the word of God, not Dr. Phil, not Steve Harvey with a big mustache. Boy, you wild, boy. What? Boy, you're wild, boy. No. The word of God warns that the seductress makes a move, makes her appeal with much. Jeff, you all right over there, bro? What you say? What? Let me get a. Get an Afro. Pick from my mustache, y'. All. The word of God warns that the adulteress makes an appeal with much seductive speech. Speech. I tell men, not only are we to have covenant eyes, but we are to have covenant ears. And the covenant ears include refusing to yield them to illicit speech.
Seductive Words Can Destroy Marriage Family Ministry And Witness
That elicit speech comes in all kind of forms. Sometimes it comes woo, woo. Boy, I'm sure your wife appreciates you. Now, to the uninitiated, that might seem like an innocent, almost compliment. Not recognizing that that is the casting of the lore of the adulterers. Oh, if you were Mine, I'm sure. I bet it sure is hard for you, you know, because you get attention. So much seductive speech. With much seductive speech she persuades him. And with her smooth talk. Smooth talk. A lot of guys talking about, man, you be running game. Listen, the adulteress runs game the adulteress. With smooth talk she compels him. Now here's the thing. I heard it a long time ago. The seasoned saints would say sin to take you further than you ever intended to go, keep you longer than you ever intended to stay right with all of this seductive speech and smooth words. Verse 23 shows you and he the correspondent to the adulteress's smooth words. He does not know that it will cost him his life. He doesn't know that it will cost him his life. We have got to understand Jon 10 is accurate, that the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Regardless of the initial presentation, the objective ultimately is theft, murder and destruction. The adulteress ultimate finish him move is that it's going to cost him his life. Some instances it literally means costing, him his life. But most usually it means costing him the life that he has built up until that point. A decimation of his marriage, a decimation of his relationship with his children as a parent, a decimation of his life, his decimation of his witness. How many ministers have fallen to the adulterers? How much of the witness of Christ has been marred by people claiming to represent him, yet succumbing to the adulteress's words? How many young believers faith have been shipwrecked as a result of persons who the scripture says should be above reproach, a husband of one wife have fallen prey to the very thing that God warns us about in his word.
Adultery Undermines Marriage And Calls Men To Covenant Integrity
Ginseng Wang, CEO of Nvidia, one of the largest tech companies in America, one of the ones that are saying, yo, you're pushing for AI. We shouldn't limit it to these big corporations in this arms race with China, we should open it so that the everyday citizen can have direct access to AI and use it however they see fit, instead of having the most powerful versions of it only available behind certain paywalls. Could that be why we get some of this information out? Though the information was around, was, was known, publicized, years ago, perhaps. But it doesn't take away the truth of what the scripture warns, because there would be no story, there would be no revelation if Ginseng Wong had been confronted with the truth of Proverbs 7. You know, we had the thing and people made like funny jokes about it. When, you know, you had this company CEO and another lady, they're at the baseball game, I mean, at the concert or whatever, and they get shown on the, on the big screen and they snuggling, they canoodling till they're on screen. Now they're trying to dip and move. It's things like this that have become normalized. Why I say that the most desperate and the greatest need we have in America is for repentance. The marital union is the exclusive human institution that has been described in God's holy word as. As illustrative of Christ and his church. The only one you think that might be have something to do with why marriage is under attack so ferociously. In our culture, we must heed the word of God in verse 24 in Proverbs 7 when it says and now sons. Sons. That word, sons is plural. It's meant to apply to men broadly. Sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to the adulteress's ways. Do not stray into her past. For many a victim has she laid low. In all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol. Going down to the chambers of death. The chambers of death or the law. Losing of one's life often begins with succumbing to the adulteress's seductive speech and smooth words. If we're going to be men, we must be men of integrity. If we're going to be men, we must be men of covenant. Covenant with the Lord God first. First. And as we embrace holy matrimony, lifelong covenant with the bride of our youth.
Afa Appeal Leads Back To Biblical Foundations And Marriage
You.
It's m. The time of year when people start thinking more about giving gifts. But did you know AFA relies on your gifts throughout the year to help us continue to shine the light of Jesus in a dark world as the year winds down. Please consider giving a generous gift to AFA when you do request the free 10 pack of our new good tidings of great joy Christmas buttons. That's one to wear and nine to share. Visit afa.netgreatjoy to give today. Afa.netgreatjoy.
Abraham Hamilton III Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton iii. Here in light of the. The things we've been discussing, already, it's important that we highlight these things. The, the, the biblical foundations, the biblical basics that we. That should become a part of our normative experience that it shouldn't be a strange thing, to. For the believer to live according to the foundations of teaching. And it's sad that things like adultery have become so common that some people, even you, might be listening right now saying, well, why is Abe talking about this? You know, I mean. I mean, all right, Jensen Wang. Cheat on his wife. Okay. Could that be a part of the reason why we're at this place where we are, you know, to where, the breach of the marital bond has become such a common phenomenon that it's contributed to a. A degradation of the sanctity of the marital union that God would have us to adhere to.
Maria Hamilton Connects Strong Marriages With Strong Homes
My lovely wife, Maria Hamilton, is joining me for today's program. Babe, you heard me discussing Proverbs 7 and the biblical admonition warning against the adulteress. And in particular, two things. One, that the ultimate objective. I'm sorry, the ultimate conclusion for entertaining the adulteress is the loss of one's life. That's what the scripture warns against. And secondarily, or in addition, not secondarily, but additionally, the scripture gives us keen insight to recognize that we should not only be worried about having covenant eyes, but men should be keen to the seductive words. Seductive, seductive speech. And the smooth words of the adulterers. What is your reaction to what you heard me share in that first segment?
Maria Hamilton Yeah, so again, when we take God at his word, right, like, when we consider what God has already said, and the gravity of those words. Because it's so common in our nation, though, and in our. In our culture and in our world, you know, for people to cheat on their spouses or for divorces to happen and homes to be broken, it just seems like it's not that big of a deal, right? Like, it's not that big that's that bad of a situation. Because it's so common around us, brokenness has been, like, normalized. But when we read the word of God and we see at the end that the end is death, we don't really think about it like that normally, though. And we should, right? Biblically, we should. And so for us, that, you know, trust God, love Jesus, are called to be his not only hands and feet, but the illustration to the world of what Of Christ's commitment to his bride and his bride's commitment to Christ. we must take his word seriously. We must. And so to your question that you posed just a little while ago about. Is that why we're here? Like, could that be why we're here in our nation and how dark things are getting. And even like you know, Tuesday's election and all of that. When we, when we last
Abraham Hamilton III Tuesday.
Maria Hamilton Last Tuesday, yes.
Abraham Hamilton III Feel like it'd been a lifetime.
Maria Hamilton I
Abraham Hamilton III know
Maria Hamilton that's true. when we peel back right when we, when we undo and we really go down to like what the root causes are and then what the solution is. Like we talked about last time where discipleship need to be made and we need to have, we need to understand what it means to be a disciple and to make a disciple. We got to go back to the home and we got to go back to the central component of what makes a strong home. And it is a strong marriage. And so the enemy, through seduction and through the deceit because he is the father of lies, uses this very notion to divide and to break and to destroy. And when a marriage is weak and, or destroyed, the children are injured and the home is broken. And then darkness is easily, received, you know, or it easily takes over. And so that's, we have the society that we have because of that, you know, not solely because of that, but that is a great tactic of the enemy that's been very successful. So we live in brokenness, we live amongst brokenness, we live amongst marriages that are weak at best, especially in the church, a lot of brokenness even in the church, you know, and then we have the results that we have and then we want to elect people that come from brokenness and are broken themselves and advanced brokenness in marriage. But we want them to fix our problems.
Marriage Is A Mission Station For Generational Christian Discipleship
Abraham Hamilton III So much, that you said, I want to respond to, but I'm trying to take it piece by piece. you've heard me say, because you live with me, we've been married almost 18 years now, that Satan does not like to contend with full grown opposition. He wants to try to preemptively undermine God's work and particularly preemptively, attack the vehicle for God's work. God's image bears his disciples. I use the example, the examples. There's a prophecy of a deliverer coming to Egypt. What's the satanic response through Pharaoh? Let's murder the baby boys. There's a promised Messiah coming to Israel. What's the demonic response through Herod? Let's murder all the baby boys. The first institution that God established and tasked with the responsibility for multi generational discipleship is the family with marriage at the center. But if you're going to use undermine the mission station, that is the Family and to attempt to counteract disciples being made in Christ like formation. Well, what's the strategy? Hm. Attack identity, attack maleness, attack femaleness, but also attack marriages.
Maria Hamilton Yes,
Abraham Hamilton III and when I say attack marriages, I'm not talking about talking exclusively about circumstances with adultery. Not exclusively about. About situations, that are often the most commonly described. I'm also including the phenomenon where you have people that are living as roommates. They remain married, but they're living in the same home, but they're living as roommates. They're not functioning as a oneness unit. They're just functioning in a parallel system and universe as roommates. All of those things undermine the potency of what God established a marital union to be. What he has joined together, let no man tear asunder.
Maria Hamilton What does it mean? What does that mean, man? You know, when we, when we make disciples, when we are called to be disciples, we must understand what God means. What did he intend to write. When we are making disciples, we must also teach the children what God meant. Because there is one interpretation of Scripture, and it is what God meant to say and what he intended to write through the authors.
Oneness Means Building A Shared Life And Mission Together
And so what does that mean to be one? What does that mean that no man will tear asunder? Like, what does that actually mean? And what does it look like in practice? And I think that, in Christianity throughout, not, I don't want to make black and statements, but. But throughout the generations, it seems like there has been a portion of the church that thinks that it's just don't divorce. Just don't divorce. But they miss the affirmative. Like, what? How do we build a strong marriage? How do we build a. The oneness that. That is unbreakable, that the en has no room to come and tear apart, you know, excuse me. And so what does that look like? What does that mean? So when. When the Lord says. And Jesus repeated it, you know, and quoted from Genesis where he says, you know, a man should leave his father, mother and cleave to his wife, and the two become one flesh. what does that mean? And what does that look like? So the two becoming one flesh. Clearly we don't stop being ourselves, but we create one. One unity. We create one concept. I don't know what we're to use there, because it's not like Abe stops being Abe and Maria stops being Maria, and then we just kind of like. Or that we blend together to become this, like, Abram Maria. That's like a amalgamation or whatever, however you want to call it. no, because it's the Two with the strengths and the weaknesses, the wisdom or everything that comes with me and you. Sanctified. Continuously sanctified. And that becomes. Yeah. And that becomes one thing. One thing. Right. That does not get torn apart. A unit. A unit that is not comprised of two separate, ones individually traveling, but there is a one unit that travels, that does life together, that does the mission, that accomplishes the mission that God calls us to. To accomplish together as the one unit.
Mutual Submission To Christ Helps Spouses Resolve Differences
So. So one of the things I hate just inviting the audience to our living room. One of the things I hate the most is disagreeing with you. Like us having a disagreement, seeing things differently and, and not being on the same page right now. That's not something that is. That, that is unusual when there's two people coming together. Like literally you are you and I am me. And we come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different experiences or whatever. And even people that come. You will. You would have different. Different, you would have different
Abraham Hamilton III people. You're gonna have different perspectives.
Maria Hamilton Correct? Correct. So. But I hate it. And why do I hate it? I hate it. Because one unit is of the same mind. And that mind is the mind of Christ. Holy Spirit does not disagree with itself. The God. God. The Godhead does not disagree with itself. Right now we're not God, but we are to emulate and imitate the Lord. So we don't need to disagree now. Yes, we have different perspectives, but we come together and we say what are we. Going to agree on? What is it that we are going to accomplish? What is it that we are going to move forward on? What
Abraham Hamilton III is our decision? What
Maria Hamilton is our. Exactly.
Abraham Hamilton III Phenomenon.
Maria Hamilton Yes. When it comes to responding to children, when it comes to what we're doing next month or whatever. Whatever plans we
Abraham Hamilton III are with our in laws.
Maria Hamilton What we're doing with our in laws. Yes. What is our plan? I believe that's how the Lord operates. That's how he reveals himself in his character. And that is because we are the illustration of Christ and his bride to the lost. We are the marital
Abraham Hamilton III union.
Maria Hamilton The marital union, exactly. Thank you. that we are to represent that in this world. Again, we will have disagreements, but we have to come together and say, what are we going to do? What is our plan going forward? And of course there's a lot of you respecting my position, but also there's a lot of submission to your position because I understand that you are wise and that you're seeking God. Ultimately though, I think the strengthening of the marriage, though, will be laid upon the strength of each party's submission to Christ. So you will lead our home and you will lead me in our marriage. Well, when you submit and follow the Lord fully, and I will help you, honor you, submit to you, contribute to our unit. If my relationship with the Lord is strong,
Abraham Hamilton III I think that is something that is, unfortunately not attended to sufficiently. Because one of the purposes of the marital union is to aid in the cultivation of each other's relationship with the Lord. Like, you should be a better follower of Christ as a result of being married to me. I should be a better follower of Christ of being married to you. So what you're saying that the foundation for marital strength really is going to be built upon the strength of each marital, component, the husband and the wife's relationship with the Lord and submission to
Maria Hamilton him.
Abraham Hamilton III So where problems arise between the spouses, it usually is, a highlight or exemplifying a deficiency in one or both spouses individual relationships with the Lord.
Maria Hamilton Yes. And to your point before, where you participate, contribute very much, are invested in my growth, my walk with the Lord, my sanctification. Areas where you see that I'm a little wobbly. Hold on, let's shore this up. areas that you see that are maybe an expression of pain or an expression of. Of not trusting God or of fear, you come in and you shore that up. And likewise, if I'm seeing areas or
Abraham Hamilton III a life pattern that you might have developed. Sinful life, Parent. Correct. Or before having additional biblical revelation. Yes, the area,
Maria Hamilton yes. And we have done a lot of that, like all those surgeries, you know, throughout the years that we've had to do. and likewise myself as a helper, like, areas in you, that man, have you prayed about that or like, consider this because the enemy may be trying to, you know, ah, throw a curveball at us. And so we, we help one another.
Sanctification And Humility Sustain Intimacy And Marital Unity
I'm invested in your walk. I've always said from the beginning. And now that I, you know, 18 years in and like, you know, more sanctified than before. I, used to say, you know, the moment I start worrying about our marriage is the moment you stop praying or the moment you stop, you know, reading your word or being, you know, submitting to the Lord and following the Lord or hearing his voice. And that is still true. I didn't realize the magnitude of that at the time, honestly, at first, you know, because I didn't come from a home where I saw that happening. And so now even more, I stand on that. Like, I trust you. I trust your walk with God. Because I see your commitment to the Lord. I'm not you. Right. But we're one unit. And so I trust your wisdom and I trust your leadership and I trust that you hear from God. And, you have demonstrated that. And likewise, I hope that with my sanctification you trust my hearing from God and my desire to be holy and godly and my quickness to repent. You know, the same for you. So like, we see these attributes in each other because the Lord has been worked. Has been working in us and we desire to be worked on, if you will. Right. So I think because of that, that contributes to the strengthening of our marriage. Right. But then we have to protect that.
Abraham Hamilton III Yeah. And. And I think this is so important because a lot of people want to talk about, you know, marital strength and relationships and they want to start kind of at the romantic comedy kind of assessment. Hm,
Maria Hamilton yeah.
Abraham Hamilton III You know, but. But not dig. Delve deep enough into, individual sanctification. Before the Lord are we walking upright before the Lord are we broken and contrite before the Lord are we slow to speak and quick to listen before the Lord are we quick to repent, to humble ourselves before the Lord? To those features are what is going to strengthen our interaction with our spouses.
Maria Hamilton Yes.
Abraham Hamilton III And you said something earlier I want to go back to. I know we're getting close to the end of the segment. you say, what does that mean when the two become one? the scriptures communication does refer to the physical conjugal union between a husband and a wife. But that is also meant to be reflective of the oneness between the two outside of the.
Maria Hamilton The bedroom. That's correct.
Abraham Hamilton III The physical mat. The physical intimacy component. But there is an intimacy that endures beyond the physical components that is. That is far more expansive and that it's far more encompassing that, that. That must persist. That will facilitate the physical expression of it. Well, that would. It will literally just be the physical expression of an enduring intimacy reality that is shared between the husband and the wife. In contrary to what many people realize is directly, built upon the sanctification between the individuals in walking upright before the Lord in personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maria Hamilton Yeah. I think it's important that we understand to honor that we have to honor that intimacy, honor that relationship as we honor the Lord.
Abraham Hamilton III So let's get into that when we come back for the next segment. How do we best go about honoring that intimacy as a feature of our submission, to the lordship of Jesus Christ? You are listening to and or watching the Hamilton Corner I'm here with my wife Maria Hamilton and we are discussing the oneness that God affords us in marriage so that we won't continue to see the Jensen Huang phenomenon. M in the Lord's church. The world is going to world. So I don't have an expectation for them that is beyond them being worldly wild. But for the body of Christ man. Let the world world, but let us live in the Word. Hello, I'm Abraham Hamilton iii.
Hebrews Calls Everyone To Honor Marriage And Reject Its Degradation
Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist.
Abraham Hamilton III That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netgive that's afr.net give.
Abraham Hamilton III The Hamilton quarter podcast and one minute commentaries are available at afr.net back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
Abraham Hamilton III Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton iii, along with my guest Maria Hamilton. And we are discussing the necessity of protecting the marital union. We started off in Proverbs chapter 7 with the biblical warnings against the adulteress and her smooth words. You don't often hear people talk about the smooth words of the adulteress, but the word of God does not discuss that. And before we went to the break, Maria, you mentioned the necessity of honoring, the oneness that God affords us in marriage. And you wanted to point to, in addition to
Maria Hamilton this. Yes. So in Hebrews 13, verse 4, and we use this verse often when we're talking about adultery. Who
Abraham Hamilton III is we?
Maria Hamilton I know, you're right. the church people, the Christians. Christians. And we hear it a lot, you know, and about adultery and about, inviting things into the bedroom that are, you know, lustful or sinful. We use the letter part of this verse. But it starts off like this. In verse 4 of Hebrews 13, marriage is to be held in honor among all. And the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers. God will judge. And it is. It's funny because that verse, it's in Hebrews and he's talking about other behaviors, right? Like just. And then he throws that one in there for marriage. but marriage is to be honored among all men, like all peoples. Right. We don't honor marriage anymore in
Abraham Hamilton III our nation on that for a bit. If we don't start
Maria Hamilton with that.
Abraham Hamilton III Marriage should be held in high esteem and high regard amongst all people.
Maria Hamilton Yes.
Abraham Hamilton III Again, amongst unmarried people, amongst married people, amongst our society. And we used to have this.
Maria Hamilton Yes,
Abraham Hamilton III as a society. But it's been degraded.
Maria Hamilton That's right. That's
Abraham Hamilton III our modern culture.
Maria Hamilton And so the degradation of it. The enemy has been skilled, very effective at degrading it, at belittling it. It's just a piece of paper. We don't need it. it's shackles. you're not going to be happy. At best, in the church where just two people, you know, roommates, man, that's demonic. That leads to death. Death of a people. That's what the Lord says. So, yes, we don't invite. We don't allow for adultery. We don't allow for fornication. We don't invite things that are undefiled into our union.
Abraham Hamilton III Things that are defiled.
Maria Hamilton I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Things that are defiling. We don't invite that because we honor it. And why do we honor it? Because God says, but also because he has designed it to be an illustration to the lost. So if we in the church are allowing it to be degraded, to be, ridiculed, to be. To be seen as not as important, it's not a big deal. We're having babies, but we're not getting married. If we allow that in the church, we are going to be, teaming up with the enemy and advancing his agenda. And then we get surprised why there's so much darkness and why there's so much pain and brokenness and why the gospel needs to be preached even more like it's destructive. And that's what the enemy has, planned out and what he's executing and what is what he's accomplishing in our nation, in our culture, and in the church in America. this is such a rare topic, you know, at best is discussed in marriage conferences, you know, and those are great. but it needs to be a regular discussion. Marriage is to be honored among all. Marriage is to be honored among everyone, you know, whether they're little kids or they're older people, whether there's people that has been divorced or whether there's people that's been hurt, honored by all men.
Abraham Hamilton III So what do you think are some things that should be done or that need to be done in order, for marriage to be honored?
Maria Hamilton Well, first we gotta go back to the word of God. we have to understand God's design for marriage, like the purpose for marriage, but also the maleness and femaleness of marriage. The fact that it's one man and one woman with the ability to reproduce, that is marriage. And that's the only definition of marriage, that is the only thing that classifies as marriage with
Abraham Hamilton III capacity to reproduce. Because even if you have some people. That's
Maria Hamilton exactly right. That's exactly what the capacity. That's right, because we were designed that way. We live in a fallen world, right? But we were designed that way. And that's what marriage is. And that is what makes a strong family. And a strong family makes a strong church, and a strong church makes a strong civilization and so on. but we have to start there. And so what God declares to be honorable is indeed honorable. We think our thoughts after his. We don't come up with our own ideas of righteousness, our own ideas of what marriage is. We submit our thoughts to His. He's the intelligent mind, you know? And so it's unfortunate that we have not done that in the church, and we've allowed adultery to be. To run rampant in the pews and from the pulpit. the church has allowed that. And so there needs to be repentance. And going back to what the Lord has designed in marriage, it's horrific what we're seeing, you know, and then we're surprised, but we shouldn't be surprised. We got to go back to what the Lord has said.
Repentance And Daily Sanctification Protect Marital Relationships
How do we protect our marriages so that the enemy doesn't come in? We protect our marriage by continuing to, grow in intimacy with the Lord and in intimacy with one another. Can, I share an anecdote real quick? It's about me, so don't worry.
Abraham Hamilton III you're good.
Maria Hamilton Let me tell you. So there's been a lot of sanctification. I always say that my husband is more holy because he's married to me. Hey, it is very true.
Abraham Hamilton III That's her way to tell y'. All. She mess up all the time.
Maria Hamilton Listen, it's real. It's real in these streets. Okay, let me tell you why. we both grew up in, environments where there was a lot of, deficiencies. And on my side, I did not see a healthy marriage, unfortunately, growing up, and I also did not grow up in church. So then once I am confronted with my sin, and I'm also confronted with my worldly ideologies in many areas of life, I started repenting. Thank you, Lord, for softening my heart. Right? And, the more I repented, the more I saw the depravity in my heart and the wrong thinking in regards to marriage and what it looked like to be a wife. I didn't know how to be a wife. Anyways, long story short, let me get to the point.
Abraham Hamilton III You do a real good job of it, I got to tell
Maria Hamilton you. Hey, praise God. Praise the Lord. so. But let me tell you. So I had to. There had to be a lot of surgeries, a lot of circumcisions in my heart. One of the things that I will just very plainly come on and say. When I first met you, my mouth was filthy. Okay? I used to curse because
Abraham Hamilton III I didn't know what you was about to say. I
Maria Hamilton know, I know. It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be all right. So I, used to curse because I did not understand how to show emotion and talk about very passionate things without using vulgarity because I didn't know, you know, in the world that's how people talk. And I was coming out of the world anyway, so I would curse a lot, and you would be like, ugh, you know, like, what are you doing? And I. Because at the time I was being sanctified, the Lord was showing me things about myself. I would get really convicted about that. But that's the power of the Holy Spirit. It was not just me being in front of a holy guy because I thought he was holy. at the time, it was the spirit of God convicted me. But
Abraham Hamilton III I was told at the time,
Maria Hamilton no, you're holy still. you're still holy. But I really was convicted, and I would get convicted. And through, that time period of my life, there was a lot of pruning. And it was so wonderful. There was a lot of truth being revealed. There was a lot of pruning. There was a lot of correction that was brought to me. And honestly, it wasn't necessarily you preaching at me. It was the spirit of God convicting me of sin. As I read the Word and as I heard you preaching, and as you know, we would sit in Bible study together, it was. There was a lot of pruning. Anyway, so. So I hated. I started to hate that way of speaking, okay. To the point where I remember watching TV and seeing and hearing the vulgarities and saying, like, it, like. Kind of making me, you know, like, a little bit uncomfortable where before that was. That's how I lived, you know, like, it was strange, but it was the power of the Lord. Anyways, long story short, here we are 18 years later, and, my husband, who was wonderful in all his ways, we get into a discussion and a disagreement about something, and my flesh rose up in me. And, a bad word came out of my mouth. I could not believe it. Why am I Sharing this because the Holy Spirit is active in our lives and the sanctification is a continual thing. But we must not think little of our fallenness. We must not think small of the flesh in us. We must hate what God hates and love what God loves. And God hates a filthy mouth. And so when that was, like, the thought that I had and the word blurted out, I immediately. You didn't even say anything to me. I immediately felt the conviction of the Spirit of God, and I was tore up. Not merely because I didn't insult you with it. It wasn't like a. I didn't call you a name or anything like that, but the word came out just out of anger and out of hurt. and I felt so convicted. I feel so convicted. It was. It was a. Oh, God, that's still. The filth is still in me. Like, after all these years, makes me want to cry. After all these years of sanctification, why is. Why is filth still in me? And I know a lot of wives can relate to this, right? Because. And we can use a lot of excuses, hormones. We can use times of the month. We can use pains and heartaches and. And daddy issues and all the things. We can use all those things. But we cannot allow for this filth to be. For it to be justified or to be normalized. We must hate what God hates. And God hates a filthy mouth. I'm using this anecdote to explain that we are to be sanctified. I'm, To be sanctified. You're to be sanctified. We are being sanctified. The Lord is convicting us of sin. Sin is being removed. We are made new. We are, being. Our minds are being renewed. And also, like we are less, we sin less, right. As we continue to mature in the Lord by the glory of God. Thank you, Jesus, for that. But there are times when we come face to face with ourselves in the mirror and we see the filthiness that is in us still because we are growing from glory to glory. But we have not arrived at perfection yet. So we must crucify the flesh. We must crucify the flesh. So in our oneness and in our intimacy and in our unity, and when we are having these discussions that may start off as disagreements, but we are to come to the same page. Where. Where are we going to arrive at? What is going to be our plan of action, if you will, going forward, if there is sin that is exposed. Oh, God. The first one to feel that shouldn't be the husband Saying to the wife, hey, whoa, what was that about? It should be the culprit. It should be the one where the sin is exposed to come and say, oh, God, forgive me, this is so atrocious. And repent when there needs to be repentance. Contrition needs to be something that is that we walk in, you know, humility should be something we walk in, instead of feeling right, you know, self righteous or justified in our sin because he has and because he no, we should repent. And God is honored and glorified in that.
Humility And Godly Conduct Make Marriage Holy And Strong
And he continues to purify us and to prune us, you know, so I'm just sharing that because it's not a pretty story, but it's one that shows contrition rightly versus standing our ground and wanting to fight in pride, you know,
Abraham Hamilton III and meaning, since you shared that story, then what, in that circumstance, what's my response, right? Do I come in, like, with a finger wagging and the condemnation, or do I create an environment, that is conducive to the contrition and repentance that you're talking about, or do I use that to my advantage to make my point and justify myself against that? Because you're not realizing if I would have done that, I would be compounding the injury causing you to begin to be distrusting of me. That in your most vulnerable state, that you're not aware that I'll be willing to protect you even in your most vulnerable state, no matter what the discussion might have been about. You know, for the longest, we've always said, I would always say in the middle of a disagreement, you are more important to me than whatever this issue is. So the issue is secondary to me than you. But it has to be, a feature of, of centrality to the union. And what we don't realize is so often there are lots of different ways that it arises and lots of different contexts that brings it to the fore. But when you get right down to it, a lot of marital difficulty is nothing other than pride.
Maria Hamilton Yeah, it
Abraham Hamilton III is nothing other than pride. A refusal to humble oneself. This is why I'm saying, and you're saying that the most necessary ingredient to a strong marriage is individuals living in humility and submission before the Lord.
Maria Hamilton That's right. That's right. When. When I sin in our marriage or when you sin in our marriage, we sin against God. We sin against God. David said that when he was confronted with the whole thing about Bathsheba, he says, oh, God, I have sinned against you and you alone. Have sinned. Yes, he sinned against Uriah and did all that, but he sinned against God. I sinned against God. When I injure you or when I. When I do anything that is. That is sinful, I sin against God first. Likewise, when you sin. And so it's. Lord, help us not to sin against you, to honor you so much, to keep you, at the forefront of our minds, in our. When we are thinking thoughts, when we're developing what we're going to say to one another, when we're relating to one another. How do we protect intimacy? Honor God. Honor God in the way we speak. Honor God in the way we think about one another. Honor God. I always say this, and the Lord showed me this a while back, man. And it's so important. It is easy for you to. To look at me in my sin. It is easy for me to look at you in your sin. Because we are humanistic at times, we allow ourselves to reduce. We allow our thinking to be reduced to humanism. But. And it is harder, which is why we need the spirit of God to see ourselves. For me to see you and for you to see me through the lens of Christ. How does God see you? You are his son. How dare I injure you? I am his daughter. How dare you injure me? But it is not because of me or you. It's because of the Lord. Right? So I think it's one way. It is spiritual. It is huge. But it is also practical because we are to act upon this daily. How do we protect our union? How do we protect our intimacy? How do we protect our oneness? It is honoring God first, hating what God hates, loving what God loves, honoring each other because we honor him, not wanting to sin against Him. Mm.
Abraham Hamilton III Within the intimate confines of marriage, our spouses are our first and most immediate externalized outpost for the reality of our relationship individually with our Lord.
Maria Hamilton Amen.
Abraham Hamilton III The relationship that we have with our Lord will be most immediately reflected in the way we interact with and treat our spouse. Said very simply, if I'm a man of God, that godliness will be most immediately reflected in the way that I interact with you and I serve you and I communicate with you. The same is true in the converse. If we want strong marriages, we can't just have matrimony. It must be holy matrimony.
Jeff Chamblee The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
What happens in your home matters more than what happens in the White House. On this episode of The Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton III and his wife, Maria, make the case that strong families—and a healthier society—begin with Christ-centered discipleship at home and a marriage built on biblical foundations.
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
