1 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:04,240 All right, we are in our series in the book of Matthew. 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:08,280 So if you have a Bible where we have free Bibles at the welcome 3 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:11,280 table, we have actually some nice hardcover ones we recently 4 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:13,280 got in. Those are free to those of you 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,080 who don't have a Bible at home. But if you pull your Bibles to 6 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:22,200 Matthew chapter 5, we're in a place where Jesus is preaching 7 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:27,920 in the Sermon on the Mount. And I've entitled today's 8 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:31,480 message well because it really goes along with what we're 9 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:36,360 talking about today. The the title of today's message 10 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:41,800 is divorce, the antithesis of God's love. 11 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:47,080 And we are going to be in verses 31 through 32. 12 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,800 So let me read these verses for us and then we'll get into it. 13 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:57,320 It says in verse 31 it was also said whoever divorces his wife, 14 00:00:57,320 --> 00:00:59,560 let him give a certificate of divorce. 15 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,160 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except 16 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:08,160 except on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit 17 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:10,280 adultery. And whoever marries a divorced 18 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:18,200 woman commits adultery. Now, I want to start with this, 19 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:23,840 that there is grace and compassion to all who have been 20 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,600 divorced in this room. Certainly the church is not 21 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,840 without, without exception to sin. 22 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,040 As we've talked about today, all of us have struggled. 23 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,040 All of us come from different walks of life. 24 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,000 And and there is grace and compassion for those who have 25 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,520 been divorced or affected by divorce. 26 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,040 This is a sin, but we've all sinned and fallen short of the 27 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:51,400 glory of God. Jesus came to die for our sins 28 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:58,040 and to forgive us, and now we get to grow in how He wants us 29 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:04,120 to live, not by by law and rule, but through obedience out of 30 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:08,919 gratitude and love. We're not trying not to sin to 31 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,680 make it into heaven. We're trying not to sin because 32 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,720 we're already saved and we're going to heaven. 33 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,320 And so that's the desire for us as Christians now. 34 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:22,320 That's what makes us different from the world because we don't 35 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:23,880 justify it anymore. We know that. 36 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:30,280 That's why Jesus came and died. So God does have a a will and a 37 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,000 design for marriage. Marriage is an institution that 38 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,000 God created himself. And so therefore it has meaning 39 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:41,120 and value to God and it should have meaning and value to us. 40 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:45,920 So today, I don't want you to question the marriage you're in 41 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:48,640 right now. You can't go back into the past 42 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:53,840 and change things, as I said. But we can't all move forward 43 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:56,720 with the right heart in our lives today. 44 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,160 Moving forward. This is all for us again, to 45 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,400 know God's heart about marriage. And I hope it strengthens our 46 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,720 marriages in the room today and those who might be listening 47 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,200 online. And it also helps us to realize 48 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:18,080 our need for Jesus even more so as we get into this message. 49 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:23,240 This is the third of the six antitheses of Jesus's Sermon on 50 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:29,040 the Mount, where he teaches in a way that is contrasting what the 51 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,520 Old Testament or the the Pharisees, the teachers of the 52 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,160 Old Testament law were teaching to the people in Israel at the 53 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:38,560 time. He would always say, you've 54 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,560 heard that it was said, you've heard that your rabbis taught 55 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:45,600 this. And he quotes something that's 56 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:47,320 in in the Old Testament Scripture. 57 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:49,120 And here's what they would say about that. 58 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:51,840 But here's what I say. So that's why it's an 59 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,200 antithesis, because they're opposed to one another. 60 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,400 They didn't interpret these things rightly. 61 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,920 These laws by God, His moral standard has not gone away. 62 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,360 That's why we continuously go back to the 10 commandments that 63 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:10,280 probably most people know. We know why things are wrong. 64 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:15,520 We know what's what's good and evil because of God's law that 65 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:17,800 He has revealed thousands of years ago. 66 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,600 They don't go away, but they can be misinterpreted or not taught 67 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:24,520 properly. That's what Jesus is saying 68 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:29,360 here. And so an antithesis, as I've 69 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:35,680 said, divorce is an antithesis of God's love or title of our 70 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:37,320 message. What is an antithesis? 71 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,720 Well, it's a person, group, or set of morals and beliefs or 72 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,920 statements that are directly opposite or incompatible with 73 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:52,200 other people, beliefs, etcetera. So an example of this, of 74 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,600 complete opposites, of people that can believe completely 75 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:01,520 different things, extreme right conservatives, extreme left 76 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:07,080 liberals, we see that it's very prevalent, relevant illustration 77 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:12,480 in our world today because of the crazy hostility and the evil 78 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:17,040 that we've seen. Because the complete opposites, 79 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,400 it's also a figure of speech to say something is opposite, like 80 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,320 you're the antithesis of me. Many of you might have children 81 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,000 who you you hoped that they would grow up to be just like 82 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,200 you. And they're actually complete 83 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:31,880 opposites, you know? And so your son or your daughter 84 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:36,480 is the antithesis of you. And I know that can be 85 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,640 frustrating. And this would have been a 86 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:42,280 pretty bold sermon for Jesus to preach. 87 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:48,280 Again, remember, Jesus was bold and loving a lot of people. 88 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:52,080 Maybe out of ignorance, we'll just say, well, Jesus was the 89 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:55,000 kind one and the Old Testament God was the mean one. 90 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,640 Well, they're the same God. Jesus and God himself has always 91 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:01,960 been abounding with grace and mercy and love. 92 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:06,240 And Jesus is the picture. He is not the antithesis of God. 93 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:11,760 He is God himself in the flesh, teaching what God's Word says to 94 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,760 the people. And he's doing that even now. 95 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:17,200 And as we walk through this, this is for us today, not just 96 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,320 for them 2000 years ago. So let's get into this. 97 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:26,640 I have one point today in this message from Jesus, and it's 98 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:33,160 this divorce is antithetical to God's design for marriage. 99 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:38,600 Again, it's directly opposed to or it's incompatible. 100 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:43,640 That's what that means and it's not just antithetical or opposed 101 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:48,160 to the idea of marriage, but it is opposed to God himself who 102 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:50,800 created marriage. Let's get into our text. 103 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:58,880 It says in verse 31, it was also said whoever divorces his wife, 104 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,480 let him give a certificate of divorce. 105 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,800 Now, in order to get a fuller understanding of what Jesus is 106 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,520 saying here in this text, we're going to need to jump to some 107 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:13,280 other texts in the Bible. Like later in Matthew 19 or in 108 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:17,600 Mark 10, it has a passage where where the Pharisees who had 109 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:22,080 heard this teaching earlier on wanted him to clarify some 110 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:24,120 things. And so Jesus in Matthew 19, 111 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,760 we're going to jump to there he clarifies some things. 112 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,160 And the reason why we go to other texts in Scripture is 113 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,440 because preachers and Jesus was a preacher. 114 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:40,360 He we all have a theology from all of Scripture about a topic 115 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:43,960 and the same truths need need clarification. 116 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,000 They need to be hidden from different angles. 117 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,640 And so in order to understand a teaching from the Bible, you got 118 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,640 to go all over the Bible to find all that said about that thing, 119 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,360 not just cherry pick verse here, there or whatever. 120 00:07:56,760 --> 00:07:59,360 So that's what we're going to do and we're going to find out 121 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,720 again Jesus's heart. And here in Matthew 19, starting 122 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,680 in verse 3 through 6, it says the Pharisees came up to him and 123 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,600 tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for 124 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:16,120 any 'cause he answered, have you not read that He who created 125 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,520 them from the beginning made them male and female and said, 126 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:21,960 therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold 127 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,240 fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 128 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,000 So they are no longer 2, but one flesh. 129 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:34,960 What Therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. 130 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:41,960 So this is Jesus fuller teaching on what we're reading in Matthew 131 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,040 chapter 5 and and so the so what's going on here? 132 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:50,280 It's that these Pharisees are saying, hey, we want to hear 133 00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:52,960 what you have to say. And they're testing him in front 134 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:57,000 of people because they knew that there were two groups of people 135 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,720 that believed different things about this topic of, of marriage 136 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:06,040 and divorce. And there was one group who 137 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:10,320 would would be the more conservative group from this 138 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:15,040 Rabbi Shemai and his followers believed it meant unchastity and 139 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:17,840 adultery alone. That would be the only cause or 140 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:22,360 reason that you could divorce someone according to this group. 141 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,120 And another group, Hellel, he would have been the more the 142 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:32,080 more liberal who would think of Moses teaching in a much broader 143 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:34,120 sense. And they would approve some 144 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:38,280 divorce for some of the most flimsy reasons, like the wife 145 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,800 burned his food or talked so loud that the neighbors could 146 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:50,000 hear. So where are they getting this 147 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,960 from? Why are they confused about 148 00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:54,280 this? How could God's people be 149 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:58,640 confused about this topic? Well, they based on a passage in 150 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:00,960 Deuteronomy chapter 6. I don't have it up here. 151 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:06,000 You can turn your Bibles there. Deuteronomy chapter 624, there 152 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:12,280 was a law that Moses was reiterating that was directly 153 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:17,320 specific about an issue that was going on with some of the 154 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:20,080 people. And it says this when a man 155 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:25,480 takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his 156 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,680 eyes because he found some indecency in her. 157 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,960 So that one verse this this is what they're arguing about when 158 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:40,280 they're coming up to Jesus and but but but you read the rest of 159 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:43,640 the context. It says if he finds no favor in 160 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,120 her eyes because he's found some indecency in her. 161 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:49,200 That word indecency has been argued over. 162 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:57,160 But most the faithful, as Jesus is going to tell us later on is 163 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:02,440 as we've read is, is sexual immorality, adultery, but it 164 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:04,600 goes on. And in, in the context it says 165 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:08,040 if if she goes and gets married to another guy, 'cause you wrote 166 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,640 a certificate of divorce to her and then he divorces her as 167 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:13,800 well, you don't get to take her back. 168 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:19,120 That's what the passage says. And so apparently these people 169 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:23,680 were so hard hearted and a lot they were, they were, they had a 170 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,280 wrong view of marriage that they thought that they could, as long 171 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:31,400 as they had the right paperwork, that they could do whatever they 172 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:35,520 wanted, that they could get rid of their wife for a reason at 173 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:38,200 that time. And this also applies to men and 174 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:42,520 women, by the way, though the language talks about a wife, the 175 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:45,040 same would be true in the reverse order. 176 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,520 They, they just did not have a high view of marriage. 177 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:51,480 They were always looking for the loophole. 178 00:11:51,560 --> 00:11:54,960 You see, that's what Pharisees were famous for doing. 179 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:58,200 They always, instead of wanting to find God's heart on the 180 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:03,240 matter, it was what can I get away with here when they had 181 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:12,080 taken it way too far. So they take an obscure passage 182 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:14,720 in Deuteronomy that Jesus is going to clear up later. 183 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:19,360 Again, this is Jesus, the word of God answering a question 184 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:23,320 about his theology on marriage and he goes directly to 185 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:26,440 Scripture because if we look at the rest of the Scripture, it 186 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:31,440 says he answered, have you not read that he who created them 187 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:34,080 from the beginning made them male and female and said, 188 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,720 therefore man shall leave his father and mother and the two 189 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:40,960 and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. 190 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:44,280 Where is he getting that from? He goes further back than 191 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:48,080 Deuteronomy to an unclear passage to a more clear passage. 192 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:52,080 Again, this is what Pharisees or, or people that want to make 193 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:56,440 a case for their own desires. You know, people that want to 194 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,000 follow God, but but they have their own desires. 195 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,840 And so they'll go into Scripture to try to find loopholes for 196 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,960 things and Jesus saying, Nope, you're not going to get away 197 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,880 with this one. Because although you go to this 198 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,800 obscure passage in Deuteronomy, I'm going back further to the 199 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:17,320 created order in Genesis. In Genesis chapter one, we 200 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:18,760 looked at it a couple of weeks ago. 201 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:23,720 God made them male and female and brought them together. 202 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,760 It was a beautiful thing that God did. 203 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,560 Let me read the first marriage ceremony to you in Genesis 204 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:37,440 chapter 2 after he created them male and female in his image. 205 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,400 It says so the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, 206 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,840 and while he slept took one of the ribs and his ribs and closed 207 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,800 it up in its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God 208 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,200 had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to 209 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:55,800 the man. The man said this is at last 210 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:58,880 bone of my bones and flesh of my fat flesh. 211 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:05,480 She shall be called woe man because he was like, whoa, man 212 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,280 never seen anyone like this before, right? 213 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:17,120 And he hadn't woman because she was taken out of man. 214 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,360 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast 215 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,600 to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 216 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:26,240 And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. 217 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:32,000 So Jesus quotes this first marriage narrative in Scripture 218 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:38,240 and then he adds on to it the words with his own now 219 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,920 interpretation of it, which is also the word of God says So 220 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,640 they are no longer 2 but one flesh. 221 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:47,520 What? Therefore God is joined 222 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:51,120 together, let not man separate. So what is he saying here? 223 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:56,640 He's saying that the institution of marriage was set up by God, 224 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,840 therefore that makes it a holy institution. 225 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:05,120 This is not just some legal matter that can be broken or 226 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:13,320 changed by some secular or or government on earth court piece 227 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,600 of paper that overrides God's standards. 228 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,600 You see, this is a beautiful thing that God created. 229 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:25,520 The man and the woman would come together and it would it would 230 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:29,600 represent His Holiness and His desire for them to be fruitful 231 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:33,560 and multiply. In fact, when God created man 232 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,080 and woman in the 1st chapter, it's the only time He created 233 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,480 all the animals and He created the whole earth and all the 234 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:41,760 universe. But after the 6th day, after He 235 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:47,360 created the human beings and He commanded them be fruitful, 236 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:53,480 multiply and fill the earth, and after that He said this is very 237 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,600 good. He sees the creation of humans 238 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:02,720 and marriage between man and woman as something very good. 239 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:08,440 And so then you can already see from this text that God is 240 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:13,280 pleased by marriage. He loves it when two people come 241 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:18,080 together as one in intimacy, in relationship, in covenant 242 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:20,880 relationship to one another. Why? 243 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:23,840 Because that represents God's own heart for his people. 244 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:32,400 He has committed to us all over in the Bible, actually, He it 245 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,840 shows us that marriage is an interpretation, an analogy, an 246 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,960 illustration of God's love for his people. 247 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:43,200 And it's always been that way, a covenant that he's made with us, 248 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:47,840 that He's going to love us throughout all of our sin, all 249 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:53,200 of our wandering. And he's, he's proven that 250 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:55,960 covenant through sending his Son to die for us. 251 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:03,600 God wanted us to come together, committed to one another. 252 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,359 Marriage is not just a natural thing. 253 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:08,760 So out there in the world, everybody has their own idea of 254 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:11,839 what marriage is. It's not marriage. 255 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:16,280 If it's not a man and a woman in a covenant relationship for 256 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,440 life, then that's not that's not marriage. 257 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,640 They can call it marriage, but it's not. 258 00:17:23,319 --> 00:17:28,760 God owns marriage, right? So he gets to decide what it's 259 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:32,880 for, what its purpose is, and who is qualified for it. 260 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:38,120 And that's what we read in this text and this oneness language. 261 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:40,040 Again, it's talking about intimacy. 262 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:45,040 It's talking about sex when they come together, what happens with 263 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:48,320 that? Well, there's a spiritual union 264 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:53,760 where two people literally become one for a moment, and 265 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,080 because of that it fulfills the command. 266 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,240 Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, take demand. 267 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:04,280 So from that union comes offspring. 268 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:09,760 And God wants us then to not only get married, but have 269 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,760 children and raise them for him and His glory. 270 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:16,840 Actually, Malachi too puts this really well to explain what I'm 271 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:21,960 saying if we go to it, says, did he not make them one with a 272 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:24,160 portion of the Spirit in their union? 273 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,000 Let me stop right there. Well, no, let me, let me keep 274 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,000 going. And what was the one God seeking 275 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,600 godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your 276 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:36,480 spirit and let, let none of you be faithless to the wife of your 277 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:38,240 youth. For the man who does not love 278 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,960 his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel 279 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,480 covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of 280 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:46,080 hosts. So guard yourselves in your 281 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,440 spirit and do not be faithless. So there's a couple things in 282 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:56,040 here #1 the oneness that I talked about, the spiritual 283 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:58,640 union. Marriage is not just physical, 284 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:03,200 it's also spiritual. And so when you come together, 285 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,600 it is God bringing us together. Like the first marriage 286 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:10,600 narrative of Adam and Eve, it represents that God is 287 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,720 sovereign. By the way, so I've heard it 288 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:19,320 said, then if you take two people and you spiritually bind 289 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:25,760 them together, then it's a brutal and violent act to 290 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:28,760 separate them. If they're basically being knit 291 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:34,360 together as one person, then divorce comes in and, and, and 292 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,960 it's almost a bloody action that happens. 293 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:43,280 It takes a lot of violence for that to actually even work, and 294 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,880 nobody is left the same afterwards. 295 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,920 Somebody once told me about an illustration. 296 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,080 If you take a blue heart represents a man, a pink heart 297 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,320 represents a girl. You glue them together, you 298 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:58,440 stick them there. And this can also go to having 299 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,200 sex outside of marriage because there's something happening 300 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,600 there beyond just physical pleasure. 301 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:09,200 If you get married or you are intimate with someone outside of 302 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:13,800 marriage and then and then you separate, what's going to happen 303 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,200 to those two hearts on there? There's going to be a little bit 304 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,520 of pink on the blue and there's going to be a little bit of blue 305 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:25,880 on the pink that will basically never come off because you were 306 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,280 joined together with some in this way. 307 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:35,560 They're basically going to be they're going to be scars on 308 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:40,840 your heart in that relationship with that person that you have 309 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,920 that will that you will carry with you the rest of your life. 310 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:48,200 I say this not as someone who's speaking down to you, but saying 311 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,560 this as someone who has experienced that myself. 312 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,600 I haven't been divorced, but I've sinned in other ways. 313 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,840 And I want you to understand there are consequences to not 314 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:06,040 doing it God's way. So that's one part of it. 315 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:13,280 And the second part is that God wants godly children from the 316 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:17,360 union of marriage. And what does divorce do to our 317 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:23,520 children? Again, I want to have compassion 318 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,480 for all of us in the room. To you who've been through 319 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:31,760 divorce, you see your children struggling or kids that grew up 320 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:36,720 in a divorced home, because here's what I think that divorce 321 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:39,520 communicates to our kids, especially Christians. 322 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:44,280 If we say that we're in this covenant relationship with Jesus 323 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,320 and Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. 324 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,080 And he's like the husband and, and we're the bride. 325 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:51,920 The church is the bride of Christ. 326 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,920 And we're telling our kids that and our marriages are supposed 327 00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,200 to be an illustration of that. But then they can't see mom and 328 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,200 dad get together and work through their issues and forgive 329 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:06,640 one another and and their their parents split up. 330 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:12,240 Then what's going to happen? I think it's going to make it a 331 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,200 lot harder for the kids when they grow to be adults, to 332 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:21,040 really trust that Jesus is really going to continue to love 333 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,000 me forever, that this relationship I have with him 334 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:30,600 can't be broken somehow. Why would God keep his covenant 335 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,920 love with me when the people I knew that were closest to God 336 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:36,920 couldn't? What does this all mean? 337 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:39,800 And I understand the pain from that. 338 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:48,080 And This is why I think God does not, is not pleased with divorce 339 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:51,640 because it's not a part of his design of what he was doing 340 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:52,920 here. It was a beautiful thing. 341 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:57,160 It was very good and it still is, even though we're in a 342 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:01,360 sinful world. So back to our verses on this 343 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,520 again. It says whoever divorces his 344 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,560 wife, let him give a certificate of divorce. 345 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,520 Now let's go back to our verse in chapter 19. 346 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:15,040 They said to him, why then what's the what is this 347 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:21,000 certificate all about? Because there will be exception 348 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,560 clauses in this passage, as you already know. 349 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,760 But what is this certificate all about? 350 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:32,720 They said why then did Moses do this in Deuteronomy chapter 4 or 351 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:36,000 24? Give a certificate of divorce to 352 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,240 send her away. He said to them, because of your 353 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,360 hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. 354 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,200 But from the beginning it was not. 355 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:50,840 So again, it wasn't meant to be this way in the beginning. 356 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,760 And by the way, they say it like this, why did Moses command? 357 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,560 And here's what Jesus says. Look at the word he says because 358 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:00,280 of the hardness heart he allowed. 359 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:08,000 God never commands divorce ever. But in some cases it was allowed 360 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:12,200 and there may be an exception for that. 361 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:17,400 Before I get to that, what does he say Because of your hardness 362 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,320 of heart? Hardness of heart makes it so we 363 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,280 don't want to follow God's way. We're too hurt, too personally 364 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:30,320 hurt to only think about maybe even protecting ourselves or 365 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:32,840 we're trying to get to a safe place. 366 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:39,240 But I just want you to remember all the places that people are 367 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,120 called hard hearted in the Bible. 368 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:48,200 One of them was Pharaoh, who was not a believer, and other places 369 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,880 like Jesus himself. In Mark chapter 3, when Jesus 370 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:59,560 healed a man's hand on a Sabbath and the Pharisees got mad at him 371 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,720 for healing someone, loving someone on the Sabbath, listen 372 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,400 to what Jesus said. And he looked around them at 373 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,960 them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and 374 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,000 said to the man, stretch out your hand. 375 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,840 And he stretched it out and his hand was restored. 376 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:20,880 So when the Bible mentions hard heartedness, it's usually 377 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,160 referring to people who are unbelievers. 378 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:26,760 And So what is Jesus saying here? 379 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,080 What is he's saying? Basically, because you're not 380 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:31,800 going to follow God's law anyway. 381 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,880 You're going to make up your own loopholes anyway. 382 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:41,560 I will give you what you want. Now, that doesn't discount that 383 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,920 people's hearts can't be so hurt that it's almost unimaginable to 384 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,640 come back from. But what I am saying is what the 385 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,440 text says, that hardness of heart is never really ever 386 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:59,080 referred to a believer. In fact, Psalm 2814 says this. 387 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,960 Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always. 388 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,520 But whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. 389 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,400 And we know that hardness of heart leads us down the path we 390 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,880 don't want to. So even if you're not divorced 391 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,040 and you're in a fight with your spouse or a loved one or a 392 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,960 friend or someone in the church or whatever it's like, and we're 393 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:23,880 in that moment, you know that you're so angry, you're so hurt 394 00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:27,080 that your heart's almost impenetrable. 395 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,240 You're like, I'm, I'm not letting them get away with this. 396 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,320 I want justice. I want them to know just how mad 397 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,320 I am to ever be able to do this again. 398 00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:40,600 And you keep that going as the cycle of hardening, hardening 399 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,920 Harding and and you never let that humility in there to say, 400 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,480 you know what? I've done things that I've been 401 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,680 forgiven for and Jesus Christ has forgiven me. 402 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,920 And why can't I be forgiving? No, that hardness of heart leads 403 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,400 us down a path. And you all probably know this. 404 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,440 When you took it too far, you wished, man, I wished I wouldn't 405 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,400 have been so hard hearted. We drug this out longer than it 406 00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:15,560 should have been. So Moses allowed for a 407 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:20,480 certificate of divorce because the hard heartedness of those 408 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,520 people that were wandering in the desert that were already a 409 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:30,360 disobedient people anyway. So let's get back to our passage 410 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:36,920 then. But I say to you that everyone 411 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,960 who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality 412 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,320 makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced 413 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:50,560 woman commits adultery. So Jesus gives us a technical 414 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,560 application, and here it is. You know, we all want to know, 415 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,120 right? What can I get away with? 416 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,880 And I dare say, like the Pharisees, we can be like that 417 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,400 sometimes, right? How can I get out of this 418 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:10,000 without sinning? Well, Jesus technically says 419 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:16,840 there's an exception for those whose hearts been so broken by 420 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:22,600 literal adultery or infidelity that one can get a divorce. 421 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:28,000 And I say literal because the word here in the Greek for 422 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:33,920 sexual immoralities is a word that means harlotry, adultery, 423 00:28:34,360 --> 00:28:39,680 incest or fornication. So prostitution, literal 424 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:46,120 adultery, or any kind of sex outside of marriage or incest 425 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:49,880 that they can choose to leave the marriage and then get 426 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,280 remarried. I did a sermon 2 weeks ago on 427 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:57,640 lust because that was the verses just before this where lust is 428 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:03,240 spiritually the same consequences in heaven to 429 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:05,960 adultery. Jesus said if you look at a 430 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,120 woman with lust you've committed adultery in your heart. 431 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,920 And yes I agree that the consequences in heaven are the 432 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,280 same. It's a sin. 433 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:19,760 It's a sin that is equal to God. It's not a lesser sin. 434 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,600 It's not a it's not a a sin that will be punished differently. 435 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,640 It is just a sin. It's the heart of adultery, 436 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:31,080 looking at another person, man or woman with lustful intent 437 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:37,080 who's not your spouse. But the consequences on earth 438 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:44,200 are different and we know that. But in the case of literal 439 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,920 adultery or sexual immorality, they can choose to leave the 440 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:54,400 marriage and then get remarried. But the remarriage is also in 441 00:29:54,400 --> 00:30:01,720 kind of a a narrow spectrum of people to choose from because 442 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,440 they would have had to have gone through the same exact thing. 443 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:10,280 Because what does it say? It says unless it's for sexual 444 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:14,480 immorality, you make her commit adultery and whoever marries a 445 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,720 divorced woman commits adultery. So what it's saying is, is the 446 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,600 two people are going to be hold responsible in the remarriage. 447 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:24,040 And so if one person is qualified under the technical 448 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:27,880 application, but the other person isn't, you're still 449 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:29,800 sinning. That other person needs to be a 450 00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,040 believer. That other person has to have 451 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:35,760 either never been married or they went through a divorce for 452 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,400 the same exact reason. Then there's this narrow 453 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,280 application, technical application that Jesus is 454 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:46,880 allowing for. Now, there are there are two 455 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,440 other reasons why a person could get out of a marriage. 456 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:55,640 Romans 7 talks about 1 is free for marriage and to remarry if a 457 00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:00,200 spouse dies. And 1st Corinthians 7 says if 458 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:04,400 you are an A believer and you're married to an unbelieving spouse 459 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:09,800 and the unbelieving spouse wants to leave, you should let them, 460 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:14,520 but the believer will never. It is not permitted by Scripture 461 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,040 that the believer could leave the unbelieving spouse because 462 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,960 again, the believer views marriage in light of God's 463 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:30,840 design and creation of it. Again, all of this, if this was 464 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,400 you, I want you to know that if you've recognized this and 465 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:39,400 repented, asked forgiveness from Jesus as a believer, the slate 466 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,320 is wiped clean. Understand that. 467 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,440 Again, we've all come here with many sins. 468 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,640 We've talked about sin a lot. Today we sang a song about sin. 469 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,800 I mean, it's been a lot talked about the world's sin, other 470 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,400 people's sin, our sin. And what I want you to know is 471 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:04,200 the beauty is as we all come together on equal ground at the 472 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:08,760 foot of the cross, bowing there saying, Lord, yes, I failed, 473 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,160 yes, I've sinned, yes, I've gone against you. 474 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,760 And Lord, I know what your word says and it falls short of your 475 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,120 standard. And that is why Jesus Christ 476 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:20,120 died. And by faith in him and him 477 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,840 alone, that act that He did because he knew we were going to 478 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:27,400 sin against Him. Romans 5 says that that while we 479 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,760 were yet sinners, Christ came and died. 480 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:34,320 We've been born with a sinful nature that wants to go our own 481 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:41,960 way that cannot please God and therefore God with A1 sided 482 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:47,080 commitment covenant to us says I'm coming to make all things 483 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,400 good and new and I'm going to love you, forgive you. 484 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,440 I am going to see to it that you make it all the way to the end 485 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,640 of this life. And you will be finally 486 00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,680 consummated with me at the marriage supper of the lamb when 487 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:06,520 Jesus finally comes back to take his bride to live in heaven 488 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:12,760 forever. But just remember, although the 489 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,760 past is out of our control and we we can move on in grace and 490 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:22,400 freedom to now follow him and look at marriage through the 491 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:27,800 lens of the gospel because that is what it's supposed to be. 492 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:34,920 And so while we've talked about the technical application, what 493 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,320 else does Jesus say about marriage? 494 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:41,280 What does the Bible say about marriage? 495 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,680 Because in that text earlier he says, have you not read yes, 496 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:52,000 have you not read the theology of what marriage is all about? 497 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,960 And this is kind of my main idea, take away today that 498 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,360 marriage is an illustration of God's love for his church. 499 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:04,320 His covenant can't be broken. He will never leave or divorce 500 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,199 us. Therefore we should honor him in 501 00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:14,239 our marriages. And so This is why I would never 502 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,159 counsel for divorce. I've done a lot of marriage 503 00:34:17,159 --> 00:34:20,280 counseling. I've been in my own share of 504 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,239 Christian marriage counseling in my own marriage. 505 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,560 And this is a beautiful thing. Why the church? 506 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:31,320 God put it here, and we don't often take advantage of it 507 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,080 before it's too late. But now moving forward, if 508 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:38,440 you're struggling with questions about things like this in your 509 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,840 family, in your marriage, we do have pastors and leaders that 510 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,000 would love to counsel through this. 511 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,960 I often tell people you'll never any say anything in a marriage 512 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,440 counseling session that surprises me or shocks me. 513 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:01,040 But I'm never going to counsel for divorce because I believe 514 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:06,520 what it illustrates, the gospel, the unwavering love. 515 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:13,400 The question is, you know, even in this loophole or this 516 00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:21,600 technical way out of marriage, does God do the same thing? 517 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:28,680 No Would he leave us if we had spiritual adultery on him? 518 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,120 Left to go break the first commandment, which was have no 519 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,400 other gods before me. If we go and and worship other 520 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,440 gods and other idols and put other people in in in higher 521 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,520 priority in our lives than his, does he say, OK, you're done, 522 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,720 I'm gone. Certificate of divorce. 523 00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:49,480 Legally I'm out of this. No, he doesn't. 524 00:35:54,320 --> 00:36:00,000 Though we sin. His grace overcomes all of that 525 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,600 past, present, and future because we are in Christ by our 526 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,160 faith in Him alone. And so then look, let me just 527 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,320 show you this in the book of Hosea. 528 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,960 It might shock you, maybe you've read it before, but the whole 529 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:18,840 theme of the book of Hosea is that the nation of Israel is 530 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:24,080 sinning against God by idolatry, going after other gods, and he 531 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:26,480 calls it whoredom, He calls it adultery. 532 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:33,120 And in Hosea chapter 1, he uses this prophet to to make an 533 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:37,000 illustration about this. In Hosea chapter one, verse 2, 534 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,720 it says when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord 535 00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:43,400 said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of whoredom and have 536 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,040 children of whoredom for the land commits great whoredom by 537 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:50,520 forsaking the Lord. And so in this illustration, 538 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:52,360 he's trying to show the nation of Israel. 539 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:59,120 You guys have really gone out on me, but you keep reading in 540 00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:04,160 chapter 2. And although he's he's got a lot 541 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,360 to say about them in their spiritual adultery against God. 542 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,760 Verse 14 He says, Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and 543 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,440 bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 544 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:18,920 And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the valley 545 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,880 of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in 546 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,520 the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the 547 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,000 land of Egypt. And in that day declares the 548 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,840 Lord, You will call me husband, and no longer will you call me 549 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,440 my Baal, the other God that they were worshipping. 550 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,640 And then in chapter 3, what does he do? 551 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,720 Although they went, went out and this same wife goes out on 552 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:48,840 Hosea, it says the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who 553 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,360 is loved by another man and is an adulteress. 554 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,240 Even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they 555 00:37:54,240 --> 00:37:56,560 turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. 556 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:02,800 He says go redeem her. It's a beautiful thing. 557 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:10,400 So God will never leave us or forsake us no matter what sin 558 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:15,000 we've committed. So we should honor Him in our 559 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,640 marriages. This would be a challenge for us 560 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:26,480 even though our spouse may not be at the level of maturity or 561 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:31,840 or maybe in a season of 1 struggling than the other like 562 00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:34,040 in a marriage commitment. If you're both Christians, we're 563 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,400 both committed to this thing saying it's not 5050. 564 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:41,000 Sometimes it's 100 zero like our relationship with Jesus. 565 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,720 Now in the best marriages, especially if you're both 566 00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:48,120 Christians, you would both try to sacrificially love one 567 00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:53,080 another and forgive one another as much as Christ has forgiven 568 00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:54,880 you. That makes a that's makes a 569 00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,560 great marriage. I had a mentor tell me there's 570 00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:00,280 in fact, probably not any great marriages, but there's some 571 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:02,320 really good ones. Why? 572 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:06,040 Because we're all sinners and we come into this relationship. 573 00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:09,520 And so what's going to happen? You not only have your own 574 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,520 struggles in your own life, but you now combine it with two 575 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:14,920 different personalities and perspectives. 576 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:19,640 There's going to be issues. So God gives us things. 577 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:25,400 We we read Ephesians 5 and I want to just read that to you 578 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,160 again. It says just parts of it. 579 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:31,160 Wives submit to your own husbands. 580 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:36,640 Now this is always a, a tough verse for a lot of people, 581 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:38,960 especially in this generation. What does this mean? 582 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:42,800 Because in a good marriage, wives would submit to their 583 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,880 husbands. And then in verse 25, it says 584 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,440 husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church, gave 585 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:48,960 his life up for her and died for her. 586 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:57,800 Well, this would mean that women respect and appreciate their 587 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,160 husbands, encourage them and help help them to exceed. 588 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:09,520 But men, you don't, You've got to reserve veto power in a sense 589 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:13,000 that it should only ever be used. 590 00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:17,240 A godly husband should only ever say we must do this or must do 591 00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:20,880 that with my family and very, very narrow things in life. 592 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,960 It would be where we worship, where we go to church. 593 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,760 Right. Like where are we going to 594 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,720 worship God and have our family involved? 595 00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,040 That is, hopefully the man would lead in that. 596 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:40,000 Hopefully the man would become the prophet, the priest, and the 597 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,800 provider in his home. And in fact, all men were doing 598 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,960 a men's group starting with these groups. 599 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,600 And we have this book called How to Lead Your Family, and it uses 600 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:54,200 these principles of being a leader like this to do 601 00:40:54,200 --> 00:41:00,320 discipleship in the home and then in areas of providing and 602 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,680 protecting for the family. And it doesn't mean that the man 603 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:05,360 always has to make the most money in the home. 604 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:09,880 It just means that it should be your concern how your family 605 00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:15,720 survives. But men, you must be worth 606 00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:19,520 submitting to because if you're not following Jesus and not 607 00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:25,960 living out your role as God's design and leading the family 608 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:30,840 into neutrality or even sin, you're not worth following. 609 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:33,640 You've got to be a man worth following. 610 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:39,880 We need more men in this world, in our culture that are worth 611 00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:44,960 following. I don't feel bashful about 612 00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:49,280 saying that, and I think women would say Amen to that. 613 00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:57,520 Please men, lead. And then it says you're supposed 614 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:02,280 to sacrifice your life, lay down your life for your wife as 615 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,520 Christ laid down his life for the church. 616 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:09,840 And so, yeah, the passage ends with, you know, husbands, love, 617 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:11,960 respect. They do want to hear that 618 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,640 they're appreciated. They do want to know that you 619 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:20,600 think well of them. They do want to know that 620 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:24,400 they're supported. But both of you need to 621 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:28,680 recognize that God has made your marriage a billboard for his 622 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:33,960 love for his people. And Jesus is calling both of us, 623 00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:40,080 both of you, to represent him well with your marriages in the 624 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,360 world, to forgive like He forgave. 625 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:48,040 That's the only way it's going to work because you are going to 626 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,600 sin against one another. But ultimately, I want to end 627 00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:53,360 with this. Do not put all of your hope and 628 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:57,840 trust in your spouse being everything that you need and 629 00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:06,160 holding them to only their side of the commitment, because only 630 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:10,480 Jesus can be the one that can bear the burden forever. 631 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:14,920 Only Jesus is the one that can fulfill all your needs and hopes 632 00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:18,320 and desires. Get your needs met from God and 633 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:25,560 then go serve your spouse as the one God calls your first one, 634 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,920 another and neighbor. I want to read 2 quotes from 635 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:34,080 Martin Luther as I close. I didn't know he was such a a 636 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:39,080 marriage marriage proponent. But when he says, let the wife 637 00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:44,360 make the husband glad to come home and let him make her sorry 638 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:51,000 to see him leave. And the second one is this. 639 00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:55,320 The Christian is supposed to love his neighbor, and since his 640 00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:00,480 wife is his nearest neighbor, she should be his deepest love. 641 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:06,800 Christians married people go love one another. 642 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:14,480 Well, those who are unmarried or considering being married, 643 00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:20,160 please find a healthy Christian man or woman to get married to 644 00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,600 and do it the right way. Although you may have sinned, 645 00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:30,120 you're in good company. Everyone who has struggled with 646 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:35,480 the sin of divorce in the past, know that if you've confessed it 647 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,120 and repented and you've acknowledged it, that you are 648 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:42,040 forgiven. And now you can go on knowing 649 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:45,560 how the Lord wants you to conduct yourself in this life. 650 00:44:45,720 --> 00:44:52,320 Let us all be blessed. Father, thank you for your words 651 00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,760 of wisdom, love, and encouragement. 652 00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:59,960 Help us live out these truths and these principles and to 653 00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:06,560 boldly stand for these to talk about these. 654 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,720 We need your wisdom and your guidance in this world. 655 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,000 If left without that, we're in the dark. 656 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,720 We start acting like the rest of the world and we look out the 657 00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:18,160 world. We know the world's crazy. 658 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:24,960 Help us to live other than them the way that you would, will, 659 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:28,040 and want us to. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.