Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / A Deeper Look Into Divorce & Remarriage | Mark 10:1-12 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Transcript

A Deeper Look Into Divorce & Remarriage | Mark 10:1-12 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series) · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

• 0:01
  Here we find ourselves again in the gospel of Mark, where Jesus
• 0:03
  is somewhere and you have a crowd flocking toward him.
• 0:10
  This has become common now. Wherever Jesus goes, it doesn't
• 0:13
  take very much time for people to hear about it and to make an
• 0:16
  event out of it. This Nazarene is here that the
• 0:20
  rabbi from Nazareth has arrived in our neighborhood.
• 0:23
  We must see him, We must receive something from him.
• 0:27
  And we have read enough of the Bible to know that crowds were
• 0:31
  always indicative of the right hearts.
• 0:35
  Many people in these crowds did not want the truth Jesus
• 0:38
  offered, did not want to submit to the radical call of
• 0:41
  discipleship. They wanted immediate relief.
• 0:43
  They wanted benefit. They wanted miracles.
• 0:46
  And we know that. How much more?
• 0:49
  The Son of God Even now He knew what was in man's heart and
• 0:53
  that's why he didn't trust them. And we have studied Mark enough
• 0:57
  to know that these people were stubborn.
• 1:03
  They were majority unbelieving and unwilling to submit again to
• 1:07
  the invitation of believing on the Son of God.
• 1:09
  But notice this again. Look at verse one, look at the
• 1:11
  last sentence. And again, as was his custom, he
• 1:16
  taught them despite all of that, despite all of that, the mixed
• 1:21
  motives, the lack of desired response.
• 1:27
  Jesus still, as his custom, taught them.
• 1:31
  I would love to use this verse, among many other verses, if I
• 1:34
  was preaching to a room filled with pastors or ministry
• 1:37
  leaders. But all of us here serve in some
• 1:39
  capacity. All of us here are transmitters
• 1:41
  of truth, whether that be to our children, our spouses, our
• 1:44
  friends, our coworkers. So this applies.
• 1:46
  Still, do you notice the model of Jesus as a minister, The
• 1:50
  absolute patience of the master? How compassionate.
• 1:55
  How compassionate. Knowing, knowing that the
• 1:57
  majority are not there for the right reasons.
• 1:59
  He still teaches them. He still dispenses his energy
• 2:03
  and time and efforts to give them the truth.
• 2:06
  He still goes. Above and beyond to help them,
• 2:11
  and to provide still a way into the truth.
• 2:13
  I read that and I thought to myself, Lord, help me not lose
• 2:17
  patience. Help me believe that you are
• 2:21
  after faithfulness more than success, at least humanly
• 2:24
  speaking, success. Help me, Help me just please you
• 2:28
  and honor you with what you've given me as a gift, what you've
• 2:30
  given me as opportunities, and to just do it unto you.
• 2:34
  Believe. If you're serving the Lord in
• 2:35
  any capacity, and you're frustrated because you're not
• 2:37
  seeing what you want to see, or because people are not
• 2:39
  responding the way you wanted to respond.
• 2:42
  Look to Jesus. Look how faithful He is.
• 2:44
  Look how consistent He is. Look how stable He is.
• 2:48
  Do not be flimsy in your faithfulness.
• 2:51
  Don't be tossed to and fro. Don't become absent or less
• 2:55
  committed to something just because you had a timeline of
• 2:57
  how things should go and they're not going the way you thought
• 2:59
  they should go. That's not the custom of Christ,
• 3:02
  and you are a follower of Christ.
• 3:05
  So here's this crowd, massive crowd.
• 3:08
  And Jesus, as was his custom, teaches them.
• 3:10
  But this was an opportunity for another group of people, and not
• 3:13
  for a positive thing who comes out of the woodwork?
• 3:17
  The Pharisees they just spawned on site.
• 3:22
  And they saw this crowd and they saw a different opportunity.
• 3:25
  And this was their opportunity, It's become their custom to try
• 3:28
  to discredit the ministry of Jesus, to try to diminish his
• 3:34
  popularity and wound his name, his message, his ministry.
• 3:41
  And up to this point, they've tried different things.
• 3:43
  One of their go to things was to slander Jesus.
• 3:46
  And to try to claim that his miracles were authorized by
• 3:49
  demonic powers and that didn't work.
• 3:56
  And so they try to different things, like ask Jesus to do a
• 4:00
  miracle on demand. Prove yourself do something
• 4:03
  here, right here, right now. And Jesus doesn't budget.
• 4:05
  He doesn't give in to their desires.
• 4:09
  And so now they're going to resort to something else, and
• 4:10
  they're going to use it more than once.
• 4:12
  Now they're going to weaponize controversial doctrines.
• 4:17
  And beliefs to put Jesus in a difficult position.
• 4:23
  You can just imagine the calculation, right?
• 4:25
  Because this was not spontaneous, there was thought
• 4:27
  behind this question that these Pharisees asked.
• 4:30
  How can we trap Jesus? How can we put him in a corner
• 4:35
  that no matter what answer he gives, he's going to make some
• 4:38
  group of people very upset with what he says.
• 4:42
  And at this juncture, at this point, the topic of choice is
• 4:47
  divorce. Divorce.
• 4:51
  That should do the job, because a lot of people have a lot of
• 4:55
  opinions about divorce, not just in the world, even in the
• 5:00
  Church. And you have to admit that this
• 5:03
  is quite clever. This is quite clever, not just
• 5:06
  because of the subject matter that they chose, but because of
• 5:08
  the timing of things. Do you remember what was on
• 5:11
  recent headlines in Israel? Can I remind you?
• 5:15
  Well, you're in Mark chapter 10. Go to Mark chapter 6.
• 5:18
  Read here with me in verse 17 of Mark chapter 6, and you'll see
• 5:22
  another layer of the conniving scheme of this pursuit from the
• 5:28
  Pharisees. Mark 617.
• 5:32
  For it was Herod who had sent and seized John, and bound him
• 5:36
  in prison, for the sake of Herodias, the his brother
• 5:38
  Philip's wife, because he had married her.
• 5:42
  For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you
• 5:45
  to have your brother's wife. What happened to John the
• 5:48
  Baptist for saying that he lost his head?
• 5:52
  And this was in the airwaves, right, The scandal of Herod and
• 5:58
  marrying his brother's wife. And the Pharisees understood
• 6:02
  that John Baptist got himself in trouble for speaking out against
• 6:05
  this. And so you can see where they're
• 6:07
  going with this, right? No matter what, surely what's
• 6:12
  going to come out of this to our benefit is that when Jesus
• 6:14
  answers our question about divorce, this crowd is going to
• 6:19
  split in half. And maybe maybe Pharisee #2,
• 6:25
  Pharisee #3. Come here.
• 6:26
  Maybe even if Jesus speaks out on this, word will get out.
• 6:31
  It'll get to Herod, and he'll share John Baptist's fate, if
• 6:35
  John the Baptist paid a high price for speaking about the
• 6:38
  sanctity of marriage. Oh, what do you think might
• 6:42
  happen to Jesus? We know he's an uncompromising
• 6:45
  truth preacher. We know that he does not pull
• 6:48
  any punches. We know that he'll say it as it
• 6:51
  is, and that will be to his own demise.
• 6:54
  And you can just imagine them twiddling their fingers.
• 6:58
  They don't know who they're up against.
• 7:03
  And I think it's safe to say today that divorce is still a
• 7:07
  sensitive subject. It's sensitive for many reasons
• 7:11
  because there's so much emotion attached to it.
• 7:13
  There's history attached to it, There's personal experience
• 7:16
  attached to it. And so some preachers today just
• 7:20
  avoid the subject altogether. Why?
• 7:24
  Because they think like the Pharisees, if I speak on this
• 7:29
  issue, people will be upset about it.
• 7:34
  And so they rather hold on to their reputation than honor the
• 7:36
  truth. The truth, may I remind you,
• 7:40
  that no matter how hard it is, will set you free.
• 7:44
  It will set you free. And the preacher's job is to be
• 7:49
  caught up and preoccupied with the pleasure of his Lord.
• 7:55
  And not to be concerned about how the truth will be received,
• 7:58
  though it must be faithfully, lovingly, carefully, and wisely
• 8:02
  delivered. And so I hope to walk in the
• 8:05
  footsteps of my Lord. We see Jesus being concerned
• 8:11
  about what God's word has to say.
• 8:13
  Notice how Jesus answers after the Pharisees in verse two.
• 8:16
  Ask them if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife.
• 8:18
  He answered them in verse three. What did Moses command you?
• 8:23
  You know why that's important? Because there are many schools
• 8:26
  of thought in Jesus time that had very strong and opposing
• 8:29
  opinions about divorce. They were like today.
• 8:32
  You had conservative interpretations.
• 8:35
  And you had very loose and liberal interpretations about
• 8:37
  divorce. And if you want to look, look
• 8:39
  more into this in your own time, look up the schools of thought
• 8:42
  from Rabbi Shami and Rabbi Hilal Shami and Hilal, who are
• 8:47
  prominent voices that spoke a lot about this issue of
• 8:51
  marriage, divorce and remarriage.
• 8:54
  So that was prominent, that was there, that was prevalent.
• 8:58
  Everybody knew that, and many people held to either one and
• 9:01
  maybe even some strange place in between.
• 9:04
  But Jesus doesn't appeal to an authoritative figure.
• 9:06
  Jesus doesn't go to a camp. Jesus cuts through all of that.
• 9:10
  And he asked, what did God say? What did God say?
• 9:14
  What did Moses command? You and I love the way Jesus
• 9:18
  phrases that. He didn't say, what did Moses
• 9:21
  write? He didn't say, what did Moses
• 9:24
  command? He said, what did Moses command
• 9:27
  you? Do you know why that's
• 9:30
  significant? I'll tell you why that's
• 9:31
  significant. Because Moses.
• 9:33
  Depend the law well over 1000 years before Jesus and this
• 9:38
  generation. And yet the way Jesus frames and
• 9:41
  relates to the scriptures is that it is binding on all time
• 9:46
  for all people across all generations.
• 9:50
  It applies. God's word is not shifting with
• 9:53
  the culture. It's not pliable.
• 9:56
  It's not subject to change. And not only is it binding for
• 10:03
  all time, right? Not only is it relevant for all
• 10:08
  generations, it's supposed to be embraced personally.
• 10:13
  What did Moses command you? You.
• 10:17
  And this is clear elsewhere. Let me show you this.
• 10:19
  This is fascinating. This is this will hopefully
• 10:22
  rejuvenate your love and appreciation for the word of
• 10:25
  God. Go to Matthew, chapter 22.
• 10:27
  This is Jesus dealing not with the Pharisees, with the
• 10:29
  Sadducees. And the Sadducees are also
• 10:31
  trying to do the same thing as a Pharisee.
• 10:33
  They want to try to trap Jesus doctrinally.
• 10:37
  And so they bring up this idea of the resurrection.
• 10:39
  And what do you have when you have a woman who has several
• 10:43
  husbands because each of them keep dying?
• 10:45
  Whose husband will will be hers and the resurrection?
• 10:51
  And Jesus answers something in Matthew 2231 after he answers
• 10:57
  that dealing with the fact that there's no marriage in heaven.
• 11:00
  He now strikes at the core of their belief system.
• 11:04
  The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.
• 11:06
  They didn't believe in life after after death.
• 11:08
  So look what the Lord says. And As for the resurrection of
• 11:10
  the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?
• 11:14
  I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of
• 11:16
  Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but
• 11:19
  of the living powerful. Powerful for many reasons.
• 11:24
  One of the reasons why this is powerful is because Jesus, out
• 11:26
  of all the texts in the Old Testament to prove the
• 11:29
  resurrection, goes to the book of Exodus.
• 11:32
  He could have gone to Isaiah. He could have gone to Daniel.
• 11:35
  Very strong and obvious claims about the resurrection.
• 11:38
  But he goes to Exodus. You know why?
• 11:39
  Because the Sadducees only believed in the first five books
• 11:41
  of the Bible, so he met them at their level.
• 11:45
  Even what you claim to be pure Scripture, the resurrection is
• 11:49
  there. I mean, you're dealing with the
• 11:52
  God who authored this book. But more than that, read your
• 11:58
  Bibles slowly and carefully and with reverence.
• 12:02
  Let's read again verse 31 and ask for the resurrection of the
• 12:06
  dead. Have you not read what was said
• 12:10
  to you by God? You know why?
• 12:16
  That's fascinating. He quotes Exodus 36.
• 12:19
  When? He says I am the God of Abraham,
• 12:21
  the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
• 12:24
  God said that to Moses. Moses recorded a conversation
• 12:32
  that he had with the Lord, and yet Jesus says here that
• 12:39
  although this was directly said to Moses, he's actually saying
• 12:44
  it to you. Even in the accounts of
• 12:50
  Scripture that are narrative, even in the accounts of
• 12:52
  Scripture that are not directly instructive, you know what Jesus
• 12:55
  saying here. God wants you to come to His
• 12:58
  Word and embrace it and examine it as though He is saying
• 13:02
  something to you. He's speaking to you through His
• 13:06
  Word, and that should excite you about the Word of God.
• 13:12
  Even in ancient recorded conversations that don't
• 13:16
  immediately relate to you, that you might say, OK, I'm just
• 13:18
  looking at this from a window with a screen separating me.
• 13:23
  You are to believe that God intended to reveal something to
• 13:26
  you. In every corner of the word of
• 13:30
  God, every portion, every line, the Lord has something to say to
• 13:34
  you and to me, he says, What did God say to you?
• 13:40
  Do you remember what God said to you?
• 13:41
  It's a conversation between God and Moses.
• 13:42
  Yeah, but God wants to speak to you through that.
• 13:44
  There are principles, there are truths that are transcendent and
• 13:48
  apply today for you in your walk with Christ.
• 13:51
  Now, that's why we study Bible study in the Old Testament every
• 13:55
  single Friday. Why?
• 13:57
  Because we believe God has something to say to the
• 13:59
  Christian. Now in Exodus, in numbers, in
• 14:02
  Leviticus, in Isaiah and Micah, God wants to speak.
• 14:06
  And when you read what God has to say, that's him speaking, by
• 14:09
  the way. In this moment, the transmission
• 14:15
  of the Word, the Word being declared, the world being
• 14:17
  expounded. This is God's primary means of
• 14:20
  speaking. Are you listening?
• 14:24
  Are you in awe of that? That this is how he is
• 14:27
  prescribed to communicate with humanity through His word and
• 14:32
  the Lord. Jesus provides a wonderful
• 14:33
  example of how this works when you read something like Exodus
• 14:36
  36 and you look at God speaking to Moses.
• 14:39
  You are to say, OK, God, what does it have to say about me?
• 14:41
  What are you trying to reveal about yourself to me here?
• 14:46
  Here's how Jesus interprets it. When God said that to Moses, I'm
• 14:49
  to interpret that today in 2023, God is the God of the living,
• 14:53
  not of the dead. So yeah, you can open this word
• 14:58
  and say with total confidence and license, Lord, you have
• 15:02
  something to say to me, and that's from one verse in the Old
• 15:08
  Testament. How much does God have to say
• 15:10
  with that giant library? How much does God have to reveal
• 15:14
  to you? How much are you missing out on?
• 15:16
  Because perhaps you don't see the relevance of some portions
• 15:20
  of God's word. It only gets better.
• 15:26
  You're in Matthew 22. Look at Matthew 19 for a second.
• 15:28
  This is the parallel count to Mark chapter 10.
• 15:32
  But there's another insight even in Jesus teaching on divorce
• 15:36
  concerning the authority and the instrument of God's word.
• 15:40
  Look at Matthew 19 verse four, he answered.
• 15:47
  Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning
• 15:50
  made them male and female? Question Where is that from?
• 15:54
  What book is that from? You can answer it, I'm not
• 15:56
  afraid. Genesis.
• 15:57
  Wow, all of you know it. Wonderful verse 5 and said.
• 16:02
  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold
• 16:06
  fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
• 16:10
  Notice the 1st 2 words of verse five.
• 16:12
  What are those words? And said, he answered, Let me
• 16:16
  read this again. Have you not read that he who
• 16:19
  created them from the beginning made them male and female?
• 16:22
  Who is he talking about? He God.
• 16:24
  And then he's continuing in verse 5, the same God who
• 16:27
  created male and female. He said something.
• 16:30
  He said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother
• 16:33
  and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
• 16:37
  We say, OK, that's wonderful, we know that that's what God said.
• 16:40
  But it becomes more interesting when you actually look at the
• 16:42
  text itself where Jesus cites from.
• 16:45
  So look at Genesis 2, the first book of the Bible, and I want
• 16:48
  you to see this with your own eyes in verse 24 of chapter 2.
• 16:54
  So when Jesus said in verse five of Matthew 19 and said, it means
• 16:58
  that he's quoting. What?
• 17:00
  Apparently God said God had said this at some point.
• 17:06
  But when you look at Genesis 224, where this quote comes
• 17:08
  from, you'll notice something interesting.
• 17:13
  Adam spoke in verse 23. And then there's a couple of
• 17:16
  verses left to this chapter, and this is the one Jesus is
• 17:19
  alluding to. Therefore, a man shall leave his
• 17:21
  father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall
• 17:25
  become one flesh. You know what's interesting
• 17:27
  about that verse? What is it?
• 17:30
  God didn't say it directly, did it?
• 17:34
  Is it a direct quote from God? No, he didn't.
• 17:39
  Some would say that it's actually Adam.
• 17:40
  Continuing his thought from verse 23.
• 17:42
  Most people say this is Moses narrating what just took place
• 17:46
  between Adam and Eve, the view to which I hold.
• 17:49
  So this is Moses writing and providing commentary and insight
• 17:55
  about the institution of marriage being initiated.
• 18:00
  And yet Jesus says in Matthew 19, verse five, God said as
• 18:05
  though God spoke this, but He didn't speak it.
• 18:08
  When you go to the original account, what do we make of
• 18:11
  this? Well, even though God uses human
• 18:13
  agency and human authorship, he's the one who's ultimately
• 18:17
  speaking. That's what that means, so.
• 18:23
  Not only do I look at something like Exodus 36, where I see God
• 18:26
  speaking to Moses and believe that there's something there for
• 18:28
  me, I could look at every portion of Scripture, whether
• 18:31
  it's him saying something directly or narrator or anything
• 18:35
  else that deals with instruction or comments concerning the word
• 18:40
  of God, and believe that God is speaking even there God is
• 18:45
  speaking, so all of God's Word is God's voice.
• 18:49
  All of God's Word is God's speech.
• 18:51
  All of God's word reveals God's mind.
• 18:54
  So even in a text like this, I am to believe God said it, God
• 18:59
  said it. And we have to remind ourselves
• 19:02
  of that because some people make the innocent mistake of over
• 19:05
  emphasizing the human element to the Bible.
• 19:08
  Paul wrote this epistle, he wrote it at this time and he
• 19:11
  probably wrote it because of this component and this aspect
• 19:14
  or this kind of situation. He knew this person.
• 19:16
  He knew that church and and that's good, that's important.
• 19:19
  But do not forget who's the ultimate speaker.
• 19:22
  It's God, he said. He spoke, whether that be
• 19:26
  Genesis 224, First Thessalonians 5.
• 19:29
  God is speaking every single time.
• 19:32
  So Jesus here is going back to the authority of the Word of
• 19:36
  God. What did Moses command you then
• 19:38
  in verse four of Mark 10? Look what he says as a response
• 19:44
  to Jesus question. They said Moses.
• 19:48
  Allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to
• 19:51
  send her away. So when Jesus said what did
• 19:55
  Moses command you based on the context, you know what Jesus had
• 19:59
  in mind. Genesis, Genesis chapter one,
• 20:03
  Genesis chapter 2. What the Pharisees had in mind
• 20:07
  was a law in Deuteronomy chapter 24, and they summarize it the
• 20:10
  1st 4 verses and based on what? Moses gives us instructions
• 20:15
  there. They believed that this was a
• 20:18
  loophole into sanctioning divorce and allowing for
• 20:22
  divorce, or even worse, God commanding divorce.
• 20:31
  And look how Jesus answered. We're going to go to that text
• 20:33
  in a moment and verse 5, Jesus gives a quick explanation to the
• 20:36
  response. And Jesus said to them because
• 20:38
  of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
• 20:42
  This is not a part of God's desire.
• 20:43
  This is not God's will. What you read there in those
• 20:46
  first four verses, in fact, you got to read it deeper to see
• 20:49
  what God's heart really is. There is a command in those
• 20:52
  first four verses, but not a command that people tend to
• 20:54
  think is about. Can I show that to you?
• 20:58
  Deuteronomy 24. Look at the 1st 4 verses.
• 21:00
  With me This is what the Pharisees had in mind.
• 21:16
  Deuteronomy 24 verse one reads when a man takes a wife and
• 21:19
  marries her. If then she finds no favour in
• 21:21
  his eyes because he has found some indecency in her indecency.
• 21:27
  It seems vague, seems ambiguous. It's.
• 21:29
  Root meaning means shameful. Anything that is shameful to do.
• 21:35
  Some would say that it's strictly about adultery.
• 21:38
  But the problem with that is that there was a law about
• 21:42
  adultery. What was it?
• 21:44
  And the old covenant, the old law.
• 21:46
  If you committed adultery, you were stoned to death.
• 21:50
  Some indecency in her and he writes her certificate of
• 21:53
  divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house
• 21:56
  and she departs out of his house.
• 21:58
  And if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the
• 22:01
  latter man hates her and writes her certificate of divorce and
• 22:04
  puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house.
• 22:06
  Or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife?
• 22:10
  Then her former husband who sent her away, may not take her again
• 22:14
  to be his wife after she has been defiled, For that is an
• 22:17
  abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin upon the
• 22:20
  land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
• 22:25
  So the Pharisees took this and they said, well, hey, Jesus,
• 22:29
  didn't Moses make a way for us to divorce?
• 22:36
  And Jesus says there is a command in Deuteronomy 24, one
• 22:40
  to four. But by speaking about the
• 22:42
  hardness of heart, he already qualifies that what Moses is
• 22:46
  speaking about here is not God's heart.
• 22:49
  Notice the language in verse one when a man takes a wife and
• 22:53
  marries her, if then she finds no favor, right?
• 22:57
  He writes her certificate of divorce.
• 23:00
  So in some sense, what we're seeing here is that there is, as
• 23:07
  an act of mercy, God providing a way to assist the victims of
• 23:13
  this horrific development known as divorce.
• 23:16
  And the primary person that he has in mind is the woman, the
• 23:20
  woman who would be left very vulnerable and susceptible to
• 23:23
  much harm and danger. This certificate of divorce, to
• 23:26
  an extent, would protect her reputation, and it would also
• 23:31
  give her some kind of security in terms of potential events of
• 23:35
  future remarriage with someone else.
• 23:38
  But that's not even really the emphasis of these passages.
• 23:41
  If there's any command of those 4 verses, it's the last verse.
• 23:46
  Look again at verse four. Here's the clearest expression
• 23:49
  of a command. Then her former husband who sent
• 23:52
  her away, may not take her again to be his wife.
• 23:56
  That's the command more than anything else, Knowing the
• 24:04
  inevitable darkness that human sinfulness will lead to.
• 24:11
  God in His mercy provides some instructions to limit and to
• 24:18
  provide obstacles for this thing called divorce to go and run
• 24:23
  rampant. So these people here clearly are
• 24:28
  finding the freedom to divorce with with just the cause of
• 24:33
  indecency. And what the Lord is saying is
• 24:39
  that if you send somebody away, know this.
• 24:44
  If she remarries, you can never have her back.
• 24:46
  That's the command more than anything else.
• 24:51
  What the Lord is saying, even here in Deuteronomy, is that
• 24:54
  this is meant to discourage divorce.
• 24:57
  This is meant to actually prohibit it and limit it and not
• 25:00
  make allowance for it. He is trying to let them know
• 25:06
  this decision that you make will affect you for the rest of your
• 25:09
  life, not just the person that you're sending away.
• 25:12
  Because the temptation was to play a game with marriage and to
• 25:16
  swap wives, so if you didn't like your wife anymore, you lost
• 25:20
  attraction to her or whatever the case may be.
• 25:22
  She's irritating. You can get rid of her and you
• 25:26
  can try another one. And if you didn't like her,
• 25:28
  maybe you can get the one that you liked before and you realize
• 25:31
  what you missed out on. And God gives this command to
• 25:35
  say you can't do that because the hardness of heart, you will
• 25:40
  send people away. That's not my desire.
• 25:42
  That's not my original intent for marriage.
• 25:44
  That's not even part of the program at all in my mind.
• 25:47
  But if you do know this, you're making a decision.
• 25:53
  That's irreversible. If she remarries, you know what
• 25:57
  that's supposed to cause a man to do?
• 25:58
  Think very carefully if he really wants to do that.
• 26:02
  Do I really want to make this decision?
• 26:05
  Remove that and you have people who will again, trade wives,
• 26:12
  swap, and treat marriage as though it is some cheap thing.
• 26:17
  And Jesus here makes it very very clear that.
• 26:23
  God's heart is not for this at all.
• 26:26
  There is allowance for it. There is permission for it, not
• 26:29
  that it was sanctioned by God. If anything, those instructions
• 26:32
  surrounding divorce is to discourage people from even
• 26:34
  considering it from the beginning.
• 26:38
  And Jesus doesn't end his answer there, does he?
• 26:40
  For the rest of this passage he will go on to explain God's true
• 26:44
  heart for this holy union known as marriage.
• 26:47
  And I want to take the rest of this time to speak about through
• 26:51
  these verses. Why it is that God hates
• 26:54
  divorce? Because Malachi says he hates
• 26:56
  divorce. Why is it unlawful?
• 26:59
  Why is it wrong? Let's look at point number one,
• 27:05
  verse 5. And Jesus said to them, because
• 27:07
  of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
• 27:10
  Divorce is the fruit of hard hearts.
• 27:14
  That's where it's stemming from. That's the root.
• 27:17
  It's the fruit. It's the results, the outcome of
• 27:19
  a hardened heart, one who has become insensitive.
• 27:22
  What Jesus again calls hardness of heart and sensitive to what
• 27:25
  exactly? Primarily the will of God, The
• 27:29
  entertainment and the execution of divorce is proof that someone
• 27:32
  has no longer become responsive to God's desire for their lives.
• 27:39
  Someone who pursues God's pleasure and delight will not at
• 27:42
  the same time tolerate a decision or a direction that he
• 27:46
  hates. And in this case, what he hates
• 27:48
  is divorce. So divorce is the fruit of a
• 27:51
  heart that's become a stone. It's unfeeling.
• 27:57
  It's not concern anymore about God's lordship, Jesus's
• 28:02
  lordship, the Bible's authority in determining what they do.
• 28:07
  Even in the case of marriage, they've lost all sense of that.
• 28:12
  And I'm aware that there is an exception clause that Jesus
• 28:15
  makes that we'll get to in a moment.
• 28:16
  But that's not what the Lord is speaking about here, because
• 28:20
  this hardness of heart is not just vertical, it's also
• 28:23
  horizontal. That heart is also unconcerned
• 28:26
  about the effect that such a decision will have on the other
• 28:29
  spouse and on the children that are involved, the lifelong
• 28:32
  consequences that will come from a decision of severing something
• 28:35
  that was meant to last for a lifetime.
• 28:41
  What? Jesus is speaking about here.
• 28:42
  The hardness of heart is him. Explain that divorce usually is
• 28:47
  like many other sins. A sin that focuses on self.
• 28:53
  It's about my convenience. It's about my feelings.
• 28:57
  This is irritating me. It's really the fruit of
• 29:00
  unforgiveness and unwillingness to work very hard to redeem
• 29:03
  something that's been authored and sanctioned by God, even at
• 29:09
  the expense of other people being damaged.
• 29:15
  So this is really the fruit of a hard heart.
• 29:19
  It doesn't come from God's heart.
• 29:21
  But secondly we see here in verse 6 to 8.
• 29:25
  But from the beginning of creation God made the male and
• 29:27
  female. Therefore man shall leave his
• 29:29
  father and mother, and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall
• 29:32
  become one. Flesh.
• 29:34
  So they are no longer 2, but one flesh.
• 29:36
  Why is divorce wrong? Why is it unlawful?
• 29:38
  Why does God hate it? Because it goes against his
• 29:41
  original design for marriage. Notice that Jesus appeals to
• 29:46
  creation. He goes all the way back to the
• 29:47
  garden. And in this conversation about
• 29:50
  divorce, Jesus speaks now in an indirect way, about divorce, but
• 29:53
  through the explanation of the holiness and the beauty of
• 29:57
  marriage. You know why?
• 29:58
  Because the fruit that leads to divorce is often the outcome of
• 30:02
  those who don't see marriage the way God does.
• 30:06
  Why do people divorce? Because they don't view marriage
• 30:10
  the way the creator of marriage sees it.
• 30:16
  And so Jesus quotes Genesis 127. As a pattern for us to apply as
• 30:21
  a principle for us to apply in this conversation.
• 30:23
  Right. He made the male and female as
• 30:26
  it was then. So it is today.
• 30:29
  What was it then? One man, one woman brought
• 30:31
  together for life. All right, so people say Jesus
• 30:35
  didn't speak about homosexuality, didn't speak
• 30:37
  about polygamy. He did.
• 30:39
  He did. Right here.
• 30:40
  One man, one woman for life. But he's teaching about divorce
• 30:46
  here. And so, in the same way, think
• 30:49
  about it in the same way that he gives a snapshot of the garden
• 30:53
  where you had one man, one woman in that paradise, was there any
• 30:59
  alternatives there for Adam and Eve?
• 31:02
  Was there any other options? No, there wasn't.
• 31:09
  Likewise, when God brings you together with someone else,
• 31:12
  there are no other options. So you know what you said, my
• 31:17
  brother at that altar? You know what you said, my
• 31:20
  sister on that altar. My commitment to you, my
• 31:25
  faithfulness to you, my affections for you, my duty to
• 31:29
  you, my body for you, above all other human relationships, until
• 31:37
  death does us apart. Until death determines that this
• 31:42
  covenant is nullified. That's what he's saying here.
• 31:48
  That's what it's supposed to be. Male and female, together
• 31:52
  forever. No other alternatives.
• 31:53
  No other options. You and that love of your youth.
• 32:00
  You and that person that you believe God brought you together
• 32:02
  to begin with. And Jesus goes on to say
• 32:05
  something so amazing about marriage.
• 32:07
  It creates a bond between people unlike any other human
• 32:10
  relationship, closer than a bond that a mother has with her
• 32:13
  child. Closer than that, mothers, Can
• 32:16
  you imagine the love that you feel, the sacrificial ambition
• 32:20
  that you have for that baby of yours, fathers?
• 32:23
  You might feel the same thing for your son or daughter.
• 32:25
  And what Jesus saying here is that when God brings together a
• 32:27
  man and a woman, that bond is closer than that of a parent and
• 32:33
  their baby. And what's so amazing is that.
• 32:37
  When one chooses to be wedded to another, notice the language
• 32:41
  verse 7. Therefore, a man shall leave his
• 32:43
  father and mother and hold fast to his wife.
• 32:45
  This union calls for a separation from dependency and
• 32:49
  priorities from all other relationships, including that of
• 32:51
  your mom and dad. Emotionally, physically, you are
• 32:56
  withdrawing yourself from every other relationship and you are
• 32:59
  clinging to that person out of the billions in this world.
• 33:04
  You know what's so sad today? That what we're seeing more and
• 33:06
  more. Happening is that there are
• 33:07
  people abandoning the one union that was never meant to be
• 33:11
  forsaken. The one relationship that you
• 33:13
  are not meant to abandon is what people are abandoning today,
• 33:16
  sometimes because of fathers and mothers.
• 33:18
  May I had, you know, I was reading something years ago in
• 33:24
  Exodus, years ago in Exodus. It's a simple observation, but
• 33:28
  it warmed my heart and it came to mind when I was preparing for
• 33:31
  this. I want you to see in Exodus 18,
• 33:33
  it deals with Moses, father-in-law and hopefully this
• 33:38
  will bless you as much as it blessed me.
• 33:40
  Go to Exodus 18, verse two. At some point between Moses
• 33:47
  leaving the wilderness to go and initiate his mission to deliver
• 33:52
  the people out of Egypt, there was some problems between him
• 33:55
  and his wife. You get it.
• 33:56
  You get that impression early on in his ministry.
• 34:00
  And we're told here, according to Exodus 18, that at some point
• 34:04
  Moses sent back his wife and his two boys with her.
• 34:08
  You got to go. All right.
• 34:09
  I got a lot to do here. I'm, I'm, I'm dealing with 2
• 34:11
  million people. And so you got to go.
• 34:14
  And so there's something that happened there, and for some.
• 34:18
  Reason. The Holy Spirit saw it necessary
• 34:20
  for us to read about the reconciliation.
• 34:23
  I'm not talking about divorce. There's just a problem.
• 34:24
  Like there are many problems in marriages today and the one who
• 34:27
  is initiating this is Moses father-in-law.
• 34:30
  So look at this in verse two of Exodus 18.
• 34:33
  Now Jethro Moses father-in-law had taken Zipporah Moses his
• 34:38
  wife after he sent her home. Look at verse 5.
• 34:42
  Jethro Moses father-in-law came with his sons and his wife to
• 34:46
  Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of
• 34:49
  God and when he sent word to Moses.
• 34:51
  I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to.
• 34:55
  You with your wife with her, two sons with her.
• 34:59
  Did you notice it? Maybe not verse 2, verse 5,
• 35:04
  Verse 6. How is Zipporah referenced
• 35:09
  Moses's wife, even himself. When he speaks and sends word to
• 35:15
  Moses, he says I am coming to you.
• 35:16
  He didn't say with my daughter. Did he say with my daughter his
• 35:21
  daughter? But he didn't say with my
• 35:22
  daughter. He says with your wife, she
• 35:28
  belongs to you. She doesn't belong to me.
• 35:32
  She's your wife. She belongs to you.
• 35:35
  You are her head. So even this gentile, even this
• 35:38
  Pagan, understood the principle of Genesis, leaving father,
• 35:43
  mother clinging to your spouse. And I saw that.
• 35:47
  So that's amazing. Moses's wife.
• 35:50
  Not my daughter, not my baby girl, not my Princess.
• 35:57
  She's yours. And I've come to give you what
• 36:00
  belongs to you. So you guys got to figure this
• 36:03
  out. I like Jethro for many reasons,
• 36:08
  including this one. When you go back to Mark 10/7,
• 36:11
  the word Jesus used when he says that one will leave his father,
• 36:15
  mother and hold fast. If you have a older translation,
• 36:17
  you'll have the word cling or cleave.
• 36:21
  You know what that translates? Literally in the Greek you ready
• 36:24
  for this glue upon? You'll leave Mommy and Daddy and
• 36:30
  you're going to glue to another person.
• 36:34
  Now I have a feeling Jesus is talking about strong glue.
• 36:39
  Very strong. And he's like really tight glue,
• 36:42
  right? Some of you contractors know
• 36:44
  really tough glue that can stick material together.
• 36:48
  And I've seen material come together with glue, and for
• 36:51
  whatever reason if you try to separate those materials, it's
• 36:53
  not pretty. You know what the result of it
• 36:56
  is? Often times there's some kind of
• 36:58
  destruction that happens, not just destruction.
• 37:01
  It's not a beautiful picture. Is there any different with
• 37:06
  divorce? Is it ever clean?
• 37:11
  Something rips, some pieces are shredded.
• 37:22
  And it's not just between two people.
• 37:24
  Many people feel the effects of it and look at this language
• 37:28
  again, this metaphor. The two shall become one flesh.
• 37:31
  That's true and physical to intimacy.
• 37:33
  There's there's again this unique union and fusion that
• 37:38
  you're supposed to not have with anybody else.
• 37:41
  But if you take that metaphor further, in light of divorce, if
• 37:43
  I become one flesh with someone, if now we're the two become one
• 37:48
  thing, what happens in separation, amputation,
• 37:54
  amputation. You're cutting off something of
• 37:57
  you. This is not just a legal
• 38:00
  contract. There's something significant
• 38:04
  that takes place in marriage, and there's something that's
• 38:06
  significant that takes place in divorce.
• 38:09
  There's something that's amputated, there's something
• 38:11
  that's separated, there's something that's damaged and
• 38:14
  what God intended to be a beautiful picture and reflection
• 38:17
  of Christ in the church. Is now marred and Satan loves to
• 38:20
  do that. Do you know when the serpent
• 38:22
  came in the garden? Now, when Adam was alone, it was
• 38:24
  after their wedding. When did the serpent appear on
• 38:28
  the scene in Genesis Genesis chapter 3, after the two became
• 38:31
  one. And I use that often to tell
• 38:34
  young people who get married. Hey, be careful.
• 38:36
  If you think that now you've come together and there's less
• 38:38
  temptation and less warfare, you got another thing coming to you.
• 38:42
  This snake is waiting right there, even at the beginning of
• 38:46
  your marriage. To tear it apart.
• 38:51
  That's when Satan appeared in the Bible in Genesis 3.
• 38:55
  You know what's so funny? If you look at the context,
• 38:57
  you're still in Mark 10, right? Look at the last verse of Mark
• 39:00
  nine. We talked about this last week.
• 39:03
  Remember when Jesus said this? Salt is good.
• 39:05
  But if salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it
• 39:08
  salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be
• 39:10
  at peace with one another. Isn't that fascinating how
• 39:13
  that's in the context immediately after this?
• 39:15
  We're talking about divorce. Why?
• 39:18
  Because there's something about not just union among believers,
• 39:20
  but among two believers coming together in marriage That is so
• 39:25
  needed in our society. That has a testimony, that has
• 39:29
  healing, that has hope generated and motivated by Christ, Word
• 39:34
  and lordship and love moving in their hearts.
• 39:37
  And it's spilling over into the relationship with one another.
• 39:40
  And Satan will love to destroy the saltiness of your marriage.
• 39:47
  She's your partner in the gospel.
• 39:52
  It's better for you to be with her.
• 39:55
  It's better for you to be with him.
• 39:56
  If you're a serious follower of Christ, you know what God's done
• 39:58
  in your life by providing that person a very near and ever
• 40:05
  present sanctifying tool, right? Who's going to call you out more
• 40:11
  than her? Yeah.
• 40:15
  Who's going to? Who's going to make sure that
• 40:16
  you don't go out of line more than him as he supervises you
• 40:20
  and as he follows the example of his Lord, I'm here to sanctify
• 40:24
  you. And you also as a helpmate, I'm
• 40:27
  here to help you. Satan hates that you're going to
• 40:33
  be more sanctified in your marriage.
• 40:35
  You're going to be even saltier with her.
• 40:36
  With him. I will not let it happen.
• 40:38
  No wonder the all out war on marriage.
• 40:42
  And that's why in this church, every single Wednesday, we pray
• 40:44
  for the marriages of this church every single week.
• 40:50
  And we pray for the single people of this church that they
• 40:53
  would find somebody who has more than anything else, more than
• 40:56
  the good looks, more than the charming personality, more than
• 40:58
  the letters beside their name. A fear of God.
• 41:03
  Because when you have no motivation, humanly speaking, to
• 41:07
  love that person, forgive that person.
• 41:08
  Work for that person. Work with that person.
• 41:10
  You know what will help you God and your love for him.
• 41:16
  So Jesus here says that indirectly.
• 41:22
  Divorce is something I hate because it was not even closely
• 41:29
  a part of my plan, not even at a distance.
• 41:34
  Lastly, it's unlawful because it's sever as an institution
• 41:38
  that was divinely inspired. Look at verse 9.
• 41:41
  But therefore God has joined together, let not man separate
• 41:46
  again. The Pharisees, the way they
• 41:47
  approached even Deuteronomy 24, even though the way talking to
• 41:50
  Jesus about marriage, they saw us merely as a legal contract,
• 41:54
  like they approached the word of God to try to find loopholes.
• 41:57
  Didn't Moses allow this? And what Jesus saying in verse 9
• 42:01
  is no this is a spiritual institution.
• 42:07
  Primarily because God is involved.
• 42:10
  Look what he says. What therefore God has joined
• 42:14
  together. Your marriage.
• 42:20
  I want you to think of it this way now.
• 42:22
  I hope you never forget what I'm about to say.
• 42:24
  Your marriage is an act of God. Your marriage is a work of God.
• 42:35
  He and his great Providence took.
• 42:37
  You took her, joined you together.
• 42:42
  You know why he hates it. Divorce interferes with
• 42:47
  something that he's trying to work with, something that he
• 42:51
  created, and something that he longs to use to glorify his
• 42:54
  name. So what you're dealing with here
• 42:57
  is not just two people and families and assets.
• 43:00
  You're dealing with a God who put these things together, who
• 43:05
  put these people together, and me.
• 43:08
  You mere creatures would dare to interfere with that.
• 43:16
  Isn't that profound? Don't you feel the heaviness of
• 43:19
  it? Well, if there was anyone who
• 43:22
  felt the heaviness of it, it was the disciples.
• 43:28
  Look at Matthew 1910. You want to know the reaction
• 43:30
  disciples? Maybe it's the reaction that you
• 43:31
  have right there sitting in that Pew this afternoon.
• 43:36
  Look what the disciples said after Matthew 19.
• 43:39
  Is a more complete picture of this conversation, The disciples
• 43:46
  said to him, If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is
• 43:49
  better not to marry. Don't you appreciate the honesty
• 43:54
  of the word of God translation, if that's the standard of
• 44:00
  marriage, If you're saying that when a man and a woman come
• 44:04
  together, they're stuck like that?
• 44:08
  It's probably better not to entertain it to begin with.
• 44:11
  Maybe this marriage thing is really not for me.
• 44:17
  Maybe singleness is Our Calling. Imagine after a brief sermon on
• 44:23
  marriage, everybody's like, I think I'm called to singleness.
• 44:31
  And Jesus and the rest of that portion of scripture explains
• 44:35
  this is not, this is not for everybody.
• 44:37
  And he's talking about singleness.
• 44:38
  And he goes on to talk about eunuchs.
• 44:41
  It's better to marry than to burn with passion and lust.
• 44:43
  If you're able to. People want to.
• 44:45
  How do I know if I'm called to singleness?
• 44:47
  How would I know? Listen, do you want to be
• 44:49
  single? No, I want to get married.
• 44:50
  You're not called to singleness. Isn't that profound?
• 44:54
  Do you desire to have a husband or Yes, because Jesus explains
• 44:57
  there that there are some who will refuse to be married and
• 44:59
  have the grace to not be in a sexual relationship for the sake
• 45:03
  of the Kingdom. Some are made eunuchs by birth,
• 45:04
  some are made eunuchs by man, Some are made eunuchs by their
• 45:07
  own will and volition desire. I want to stay single so that I
• 45:12
  can dedicate myself more to the ministry.
• 45:14
  I'm not limited by these worldly affairs.
• 45:16
  Paul uses that language concerning marriage.
• 45:18
  So if you desire to be married, OK, you're not called the
• 45:21
  singleness. Simple as Jesus says, no,
• 45:27
  listen, not everybody can accept this and I'm sure there's so
• 45:33
  many things that are coming to mind.
• 45:34
  So many scenarios, so many cases, and especially the
• 45:39
  exception clause that Jesus makes clear.
• 45:42
  Matthew 19, verse nine. Look at the verse before and I
• 45:44
  say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual morality
• 45:47
  and marries another, commits adultery.
• 45:52
  So, so honorable, so high is this view of marriage that Jesus
• 45:55
  explains when he says what therefore God has joined
• 45:57
  together. Let no man separate that he
• 46:01
  gives one single exception clause to divorce and that's
• 46:04
  sexual morality. Paul adds to that by saying if
• 46:07
  you're married to an unbelieving spouse and that unbelieving
• 46:09
  spouse chooses to walk away from you, be at peace.
• 46:12
  Let him walk away. And Jesus here spells out sexual
• 46:17
  morality. The word pornea.
• 46:19
  There is not just adultery, it speaks about the vast spectrum
• 46:25
  of sexual sin. So that goes to show how serious
• 46:31
  sexual sin is. There are some, maybe even here,
• 46:34
  who don't believe that this is what Jesus meant.
• 46:38
  And in order to provide no open door for there to be divorced,
• 46:42
  there are some who even teach that no, even if somebody does
• 46:46
  commit adultery or some gross sexual morality, you're not free
• 46:51
  to remarry if you divorce. I don't want to Personally, as I
• 46:56
  come to the word of God, I don't want to deny somebody something
• 46:58
  that Jesus doesn't deny them. And when you actually look at
• 47:03
  Matthew, chapter one, you read about Joseph who is trying to
• 47:06
  understand how his young fiance got pregnant, and engagements
• 47:15
  then we're much different than engagements today.
• 47:18
  Engagements. Then we're almost like marriage.
• 47:22
  You know what it says there in Matthew.
• 47:23
  Read it on your own time. The Bible calls Joseph a just
• 47:29
  man, and some translations are righteous man.
• 47:32
  And in that very same breath we are told that Joseph, in order
• 47:36
  not to shame her, sought to divorce her quietly.
• 47:42
  You know what that says? That if there are grounds for
• 47:45
  divorce, you can be righteous even in that pursuit.
• 47:51
  Does that mean that even something as painful and as
• 47:54
  betraying a sexual sin means that that marriage should be
• 47:58
  ended? Absolutely not.
• 48:00
  Absolutely not. We should fight for our
• 48:04
  marriages even after something like that takes place.
• 48:08
  We should fight for our marriages and so understand the
• 48:13
  heart of the Lord here that this is not about finding the reasons
• 48:19
  to divorce. This is a teaching about trying
• 48:23
  to fight for our marriages more than anything else.
• 48:27
  Not to result to divorce as a way out.
• 48:32
  Even in the face of sin like this, that's not what the Lord
• 48:38
  is getting at. At the same time, He
• 48:41
  understands. He understands what a covenant
• 48:43
  is. He understands what can nullify
• 48:45
  it. He understands the human
• 48:48
  hardness of heart, and so he speaks clearly, undeniably.
• 48:55
  There are a lot of people, a lot of people on both ends of this
• 48:58
  issue that do Hermenegal gymnastics to make their case.
• 49:05
  Just stick with what the Bible says.
• 49:07
  Just see what the Bible says. And I know, I know, I know, I
• 49:10
  know, I know. There's so many other shades of
• 49:13
  problems in between that might cost a couple to say.
• 49:18
  I don't know if this is going to work, and I don't have enough
• 49:22
  time here to describe those hypothetical scenarios, but I
• 49:25
  would say, come to the word of God, please seek the counsel of
• 49:30
  your church. If it's a biblical church and
• 49:31
  you trust your elders, get before them with your spouse.
• 49:35
  Talk open, be honest, plead, pray, cry weep.
• 49:39
  Fight and trust of the Lord and His grace and wisdom and spirit
• 49:48
  will lead and lead and lead and lead.
• 49:52
  But don't give up, don't give up, Jesus says in Mark 10/10.
• 49:58
  I already said it but I'll say it again and just to honor our
• 50:04
  text. And in the house the disciples
• 50:05
  asked him again about this matter.
• 50:07
  So after Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in front of the crowd,
• 50:10
  the disciples in a private session come to me and say Lord,
• 50:13
  we got to know more about this. And I wonder based on Jesus
• 50:17
  answer, if their question was about remarriage.
• 50:19
  He said to them, whoever divorces his wife marries
• 50:22
  another and marries another commits adultery against her.
• 50:24
  And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
• 50:27
  adultery. You know that means what that
• 50:28
  means. Humanly speaking, no matter what
• 50:31
  efforts you go through to try to dissolve a union, if it's not on
• 50:34
  the grounds, the righteous grounds for divorce, then it's
• 50:41
  still seen as marriage in heaven.
• 50:45
  So do whatever you need to do here.
• 50:46
  You divorce somebody else for unrighteous reasons, for selfish
• 50:50
  reasons, for whatever reason, except for the reasons that the
• 50:52
  Bible presents, and you go marry somebody else.
• 50:54
  Jesus says it's as though you are still married to that person
• 50:57
  that you think you divorce from and you're now with somebody
• 50:59
  else. That's adultery.
• 51:03
  And what happens for a person who might be that situation?
• 51:06
  What happens for the person who's hearing this message thing
• 51:08
  saying? I blew it with my marriage.
• 51:13
  Or I am on the other end. I didn't want this to happen,
• 51:16
  and now here I am. Well, again, there are many ways
• 51:19
  to approach this, but let me say something here.
• 51:23
  Let me say something to those who might disagree with me,
• 51:26
  maybe more on the liberal side, that regardless of the reason
• 51:31
  for divorce, I should be free to remarry because I am lonely and
• 51:36
  I am burning and I need companionship.
• 51:40
  Here's what I would say. You know what God's heart would
• 51:43
  be if there was an illegitimate divorce and each party is not
• 51:48
  remarried? The priority is not to find
• 51:51
  another spouse that's more compatible.
• 51:53
  That's not God's priority. You know what?
• 51:54
  It is reconciliation. And this is, this is, this is
• 51:58
  what kind of hurts me because there are some who would say,
• 52:02
  yeah, this is an illegitimate divorce and.
• 52:04
  You know, in the name of whatever mercy and compassion.
• 52:08
  Find somebody else. Find somebody else.
• 52:10
  You know what that does? That cancels out the possibility
• 52:12
  of those two people coming together again.
• 52:16
  Because if even after a dishonorable and ugly split, if
• 52:22
  you are with somebody else, if you even made that decision, the
• 52:24
  decision that Jesus condemns here, that marriage now is a
• 52:28
  standing marriage before God, now you have to honor that
• 52:31
  marriage. And you're saying, what do you
• 52:32
  mean by that? I'm saying, years ago I received
• 52:34
  an e-mail from somebody who. Divorced.
• 52:40
  Not for a legitimate reason. Remarried, adultery and was told
• 52:44
  by other Christians, you need to divorce that person now and get
• 52:47
  back with the original your original husband.
• 52:49
  That's not right. Now that marriage is recognized.
• 52:55
  Now that marriage is standing before God.
• 52:56
  Now you have to honor that marriage and from that place
• 52:59
  seek the Lord in repentance and seek to honor him in this new
• 53:02
  union. You don't divorce and then go
• 53:05
  back. That goes against what even
• 53:06
  Deuteronomy is speaking about. So then what if, again, you're
• 53:13
  in that place and you're wondering, I don't know what to
• 53:18
  do here. I'm still trying to put all the
• 53:23
  pieces together on my own, thinking in my own heart.
• 53:28
  Believe that even if that decision was made, even if you
• 53:30
  went to that courthouse, even if things seem to be set in stone,
• 53:35
  God can do a miracle. Do you know how I know that
• 53:42
  There is a story that my father told me if somebody he knew, not
• 53:47
  even a believer, not even a believer and seeking my father
• 53:53
  mother for help concerning their marriage, his marriage with his
• 53:56
  wife who was sold on divorce, sold on divorce.
• 54:04
  And she ended up making that decision.
• 54:06
  He didn't want it. That decision was made, and my
• 54:11
  dad lost touch with this individual years ago.
• 54:13
  By This individual connects with my father.
• 54:15
  Again. Still not a believer.
• 54:17
  But you know what? I told my dad I'm back together
• 54:20
  with my wife. I never remarried.
• 54:27
  She never married. She just realized what a stupid
• 54:29
  mistake that was. It took years, but she realized
• 54:32
  it. You know what stirs me in my
• 54:34
  heart? If that could be true for an
• 54:36
  unbelieving couple, how much more for us who claim Christ?
• 54:42
  If that could be true for the world, how much more us who has
• 54:47
  believers believe that God can restore anything and reconcile
• 54:54
  anyone? I'm fully aware that this is a
• 54:57
  heavy message, not an easy message.
• 55:01
  But here's my desire, and I end it here in preparing this and in
• 55:04
  praying for this and preaching this for those who are married
• 55:07
  in this place, that you would feel a fresh appreciation for
• 55:11
  the union that you're enjoying. And God, I want you to look at
• 55:16
  your spouse after this. I want you to get in that car,
• 55:18
  not argue about where you're going to go and eat, but to hold
• 55:21
  her hand and say God joined us together.
• 55:26
  God brought you into my life. God brought you and I to walk
• 55:31
  this journey hand in hand to glorify him.
• 55:34
  I'm sorry, honey, if I lose my temper sometimes.
• 55:37
  Honey. I'm sorry if I don't listen to
• 55:38
  you sometimes and let the word of God fuse you even closer
• 55:44
  together. And for those who might leave
• 55:46
  this place heavy hearted because maybe you have a history of
• 55:49
  divorce, maybe right now you are in a limbo not understanding
• 55:56
  what to do with your marriage. And divorce is on the table.
• 56:01
  Well, if you have a history with divorce, know this.
• 56:03
  If you've repented about your past, today is a new day.
• 56:08
  If you are not remarried, reconciliation is possible.
• 56:11
  If you have remarried, honor God in this marriage.
• 56:13
  Now. If you are struggling in your
• 56:19
  relationship with your husband, with your wife, I beg you, take
• 56:25
  that thought of the divorce and throw it in the trash if there
• 56:29
  is grounds for it. Talk with your elders.
• 56:34
  Talk with believers. Get wisdom on this.
• 56:37
  Pray about this. Not to dismiss your emotions or
• 56:41
  the pain, but to have God's Word govern your next steps.
• 56:45
  If there's no grounds for it, I want you to hear me very
• 56:49
  carefully. Satan is at your front step.
• 56:55
  He's waiting for that to happen, and he will rejoice when it
• 56:59
  does. Don't give him a chance to
• 57:01
  rejoice. See this as a trial.
• 57:04
  See this as a test, and see this as an opportunity to be
• 57:07
  triumphant and to prove that Satan could not get your
• 57:10
  marriage and you will honor God no matter what.
• 57:14
  Let's pray, Lord, you know how hard our
• 57:33
  hearts can be that we can even look at something as holy and
• 57:39
  pure and heavenly as marriage and have disdain for it and
• 57:44
  despise it and be unresponsive to it.
• 57:48
  Forgive us though. We pray that for the every
• 57:52
  believer in this place, we would see the high call marriages the
• 57:57
  great responsibilities, but also the great delight, the grace of
• 58:00
  life that marriage really is. Lord, For those who are married,
• 58:05
  bless them, strengthen them, empower them.
• 58:07
  For those who are struggling in their marriage or rescue them,
• 58:11
  rescue them with truth. Lord, if there's an innocent
• 58:14
  party involved, Lord, strengthen them.
• 58:15
  If there's a guilty party involved, convict them and bring
• 58:19
  them to their knees to see the gross sin that unfaithfulness
• 58:24
  really is for those that are just not getting along and they
• 58:32
  want to tap out. May they hear your voice for
• 58:37
  them today, and may they find fresh motivation to keep
• 58:43
  fighting for those who have a history.
• 58:46
  Oh Lord, our prayer is not that they would be guilty or
• 58:50
  condemned, that they would still praise you in light of your
• 58:54
  word, and they would see wherever they are today as a new
• 58:58
  day with a new opportunity to love you and worship you.
• 59:02
  And thank you, Lord, that first John 5 tells us that when our
• 59:04
  hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts.
• 59:09
  Lord, as heinous and as destructive as divorce is, it is
• 59:14
  not a sin that you are willing not to forgive.
• 59:19
  You will forgive. And so, Lord, we just pray that
• 59:22
  every person who might have had that past would be secure today,
• 59:26
  knowing that you love them. Lord, we do love you and we
• 59:33
  thank you, Oh God, that even with David and Bathsheba, even
• 59:38
  though the beginning of the relationship was based on
• 59:41
  immorality and unfaithfulness, when all was said and done it
• 59:45
  was a new day. And you gave them Solomon, and
• 59:48
  you name Solomon, Jedediah, beloved of the Lord.
• 59:52
  And so for those who might be struggling, do I still have a
• 59:54
  future? Do I still have a future with
• 59:58
  God because of my past failed relationships?
• 1:00:01
  May they remember that you gave us Solomon through a very, very,
• 1:00:07
  very interesting relationship. And so, Lord, no matter where
• 1:00:12
  we're coming from, we see the hope in this.
• 1:00:15
  We see your mind in this, your heart in this, and we want to
• 1:00:17
  rejoice in you. And so we pray that we would do
• 1:00:20
  that now by your grace, in Jesus name.
• 1:00:23
  Amen.