"He Made Them Male & Female"

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Lord's Day message from May 26th, 2024 -Biblical Text: Matthew 19:1-12

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Matthew 19 starting in verse 1. Now it came to pass when
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Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the
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Jordan and a great multitude followed him and he healed them there.
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The Pharisees also came to him testing him and saying to him is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?
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And he answered and said to them have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female?
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And he said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
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So then they are no longer two but one flesh therefore what
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God has joined together let not man separate. They said to him why then did
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Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away?
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He said to them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.
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And his disciples said to him if such is the case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry.
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But he said to them all cannot accept this saying but only those to whom it has been given.
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May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Thank you. Thank you
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Mark. So the title of this morning's message is he made them male and female and we're gonna go verse by verse through Matthew 19 1 through 11 maybe 1 through 12 and obviously here
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Jesus is teaching on marriage, divorce, we also see important statements about gender and even celibacy so we have a lot to get to so let's jump right in but let me just ask this question up front.
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Do you think Jesus has a high standard for marriage or a low standard? High standard right?
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Do you think most Americans have that same high standard or a lower standard?
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Lower probably. Okay Matthew 19 starting in verse 1 it says now it came to pass when
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Jesus had finished these sayings and of course this is a reference to the last chapter chapter 18 where Jesus talked a lot about forgiveness and if a marriage is going to last there obviously needs to be a lot of forgiveness so after that it says he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the
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Jordan and great multitudes followed him and he healed them there so the crowds are still big a lot of people are coming out to hear
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Jesus and as we've seen going through the Gospel of Matthew Jesus was very much well -liked and respected among the common people but the ruling elite and the religious leaders
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I mean that's another story so of all the people there listening to Jesus watching him heal his enemies are mixed in with the crowd and we see that here in verse 3 it says the
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Pharisees also came to him and was to say that the Pharisees are doing do they really want to know are they asking questions because they really want the answer was to say the
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Pharisees also came testing him and saying to him is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason and of course today this does apply as you could say is a lawful for a woman to divorce her husband just for any reason now the question is it lawful is a reference to the
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Jewish law the law of Moses sometimes it's synonymous with the the old covenant you know the law of Moses is it lawful actually that's not really the question is it lawful because everyone agreed it was lawful everyone knew it was lawful but what is the specific question is it lawful to divorce for just any reason we have a name for this today in the
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Western world especially in this country this is called no -fault divorce in our nation today people can get a divorce literally for any reason or no reason at all and this is what some were starting to argue for in first century
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Israel I mean you think maybe back then this is a long time ago Jewish society you probably thought it was a lot different back then they're more traditional or whatever not really
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I mean they have the same things that we have today the same ideas so people in first century
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Israel were arguing for basically no -fault divorce and like today there was a spectrum back then you had the traditionalists in the days of Jesus who didn't like divorce they hated divorce and they thought the only reason you could get a divorce if there was some sort of infidelity and then there was this other group that wasn't really bothered by divorce
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I mean nobody really says they like it but they wanted to make things easier so they wanted like we have today no -fault divorce and when when a country when a society adopts no -fault divorce do you think the divorce rate goes up or down it doesn't just go up it skyrockets and that leads to the breakdown of the family which leads to the breakdown of of the nation so this is a very important subject so Jesus gets asked this question
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I'm glad they asked the question even though even though they are testing him they aren't really asking to find out
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I am glad that they asked it because it kind of gives us a window into the mind of Christ so again the more traditional person maybe with a biblical worldview would find maybe no -fault divorce they would find it abhorrent but there are other people who think hey you know it's it's it's no big thing and that's kind of the attitude that a lot of people have today so in first century
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Israel the nation was starting to be divided you had one group of rabbis teaching one thing and another group of rabbis teaching something else again just like today right there are those churches again that have a certain flag out front and they say they sell celebrate all lifestyles so if you want to get a divorce in a church like that they might throw you a party
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I mean that happens there's a thing called divorce parties today who's heard of this someone decides they're good usually it's the woman divorces her husband and her and her friends throw a divorce party to celebrate her newfound freedom so today there are churches who celebrate literally celebrate that type of thing and then you know there's the more conservative or traditional churches that deeply frown on that type of thing so I only say that to say this there's nothing new under the
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Sun we're living through the same type of situation they were in back then so it's very relevant okay so probably this is based on Deuteronomy 24 you don't have to turn there you can make a note and study this later on if you want but the original understanding from Moses based on Deuteronomy 24 said that divorce was lawful that's true but it was only permitted if a man discovered some uncleanness in his wife that's the wording that Moses used and of course
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Moses is getting this we believe from from the Lord so if on the wedding night something was discovered usually we would call this an annulment if it happened soon afterward but let's say something was discovered on the wedding night let's say a man was married under false pretenses he thought he was marrying a virgin and he discovered that wasn't the case or certainly if there was adultery
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I mean back then in first century Israel adultery what was the penalty for adultery yeah you remember
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John chapter 8 the woman caught in adultery the the mob there they were ready to stone her so certainly adultery would end the marriage but a man could get a divorce lawfully if there was some sort of unfaithfulness so that was the traditional understanding divorce was lawful but only under certain certain circumstances and that's what many of the rabbis you know and I'm using the term conservative there might be a better word for that but that's just the way people typically understand and that's what the conservative rabbis were teaching but you had the more again whatever the word liberal progressive rabbis they were teaching divorce for any reason so the
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Jews again were divided but they all agreed here's the thing all the
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Jews agreed that divorce was lawful some people don't like that so is that is that really true
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I mean well yeah and this is why the Pharisees come to Jesus because they're trying to see if Jesus will actually affirm divorce because back in their mind they know that God doesn't really like divorce so if we ask
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Jesus this question they figure no matter how Jesus responds he's either gonna upset this side or this side or Jesus will somehow affirm divorce he's gonna make somebody upset now does
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Jesus answer the question well yeah he does and I would say Jesus does affirm the traditional understanding however
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Jesus's answer is not really a direct answer he makes a bigger point isn't that what
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Jesus always does they try to trap him and he I don't want to say he wiggles out of it but he has a way of making them look foolish and turning it back around on people so the point the bigger point that Jesus makes is that God wanted anyone to get a divorce and then they're gonna try to pin them down well
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Moses said and Moses spoke for God Moses said it was okay so this is just one big trap so Jesus acknowledges that divorce is lawful but he said it's only because of the hardness of your hearts let's look at verses four and five so Jesus the first thing he does he goes you could say he goes to the
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Bible right isn't this maybe the first thing that we should do if somebody asked you a question how should you answer it he says have you not read and then he references the book of Genesis verses four and five he says have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female and he said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh so that's what
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Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 teaches so clearly making appeal to Genesis Jesus we notice affirms the story of Adam and Eve and this is for the
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Wednesday night crowd we've been talking about this the past few Wednesdays that Jesus affirmed the
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Old Testament scriptures he affirmed a literal person named Adam in a literal person named
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Eve Jesus affirmed you know Noah's Ark in the flood story and I always say that because there's a lot of people who would deny those things today but Jesus affirmed
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Adam and Eve and he actually makes reference to them because God when God ordained marriage how did he do it he did it with and through Adam and Eve so what's
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God's plan for marriage from the beginning so Adam one man and Eve one woman and of course this is not a surprise to most of us this is what
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God wants one man one woman for life matter of fact this is the only sexual relationship that Jesus affirms and because this is
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God's ideal because this is what God wants you can make sure or be sure that the devil is going to attack this and the devil of course has attacked us so God made
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Adam and Eve and from then on with their children and their children's children's down through the down through the generations through history this is the way it's supposed to be one man one woman for life does every believer agree with that's
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God's best intention that is God's intention for marriage okay now someone could argue that the only other type of marriage because you do see this in the
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Bible and it almost appears as if God doesn't mind because God doesn't really speak against it but you do actually see polygamy in the
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Old Testament don't you so someone could argue in certain groups like the Mormons in the past have argued that God endorses polygamy
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King David was a polygamist you could argue that Abraham you know he had a child with Sarah and his and her maidservant and of course
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Israel himself was a polygamist I mean that's true it is in the
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Bible but if you read those stories I grant that God doesn't condemn them for it but if you read those stories when a man practiced polygamy did it cause problems oh it caused a lot of problems so if you take that as any sort of basis for you know the
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Bible telling us is this right or wrong yeah the men who practice polygamy they paid for it but again
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God never endorsed it God never told people to do that you got to go back to the beginning
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Adam and Eve that's God's plan one man one woman for life so that's God's will look at verse 5 he tells us what the will is man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so far this is just boilerplate
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Christianity 101 anyone who believes the Bible should agree with all of this but what what does it mean that the two become one this is something that if you read commentators there's a lot of different answers there's more than just one answer but at the very least this is partially what it means the two becoming one is to some degree a reference to the physical relationship between husband a wife they come together and they produce a child so that's been the
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Jewish understand you know Christian understanding for 2 ,000 years Jewish understanding for 4 ,000 going back 6 ,000 to Genesis that that relationship is for husband and wife only this relationship outside of biblical marriage when two unmarried people have relations what is it called it's called fornication and when it's between a married person and someone not their spouse that's called adultery and these were considered very serious sins in Israel they were considered very serious sins within Christianity up until about 15 minutes ago but you know but here's the thing in Israel and technically while Jesus was alive on earth ministering this was actually a death penalty offense so they're not just sins adultery in particular was actually a crime now most people today would find that to be absurd you know the idea that adultery would be a crime or these things would be illegal but you know what they were illegal in this country just trying to make application here they were even fornication was actually illegal in this country up until about the middle of the 20th century that's some of you when you when you were younger these things were actually illegal and then starting in the 1950s 1960s you know they stopped enforcing the law and then they're probably still on the book some places but just to let you know that this actually was taken seriously right up until again 15 minutes ago and then there are more illicit behaviors that were certainly illegal in Israel and even here in the
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States up until up until recently speaking because we're trying to tie this to keep rooted in Matthew 19 the main thing
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Jesus is addressing is no fault divorce do you know when no fault divorce was first made law in the
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United States 1969 guess what state was the first state no no think
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West Coast another state that sort of leads the way with things like this yeah 1969
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California no fault divorce was first signed into law this might surprise you by governor
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Ronald Reagan but before that before that I just don't know you're gonna be upset that I mentioned that but you know up until that time it just it wasn't it wasn't allowed
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I mean it still happened I mean let's be honest it still happened it just wasn't really sanctioned by the government and then it swept through this country in the 1970s 1980s all the states started doing it and then 1990s things progressed and then we started hearing about civil unions in the 1990s and we know where we are right now
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I mean things have totally changed the fabric of this country have changed marriage is thought about in a totally different way and if you believe what nearly everyone believed 50 years ago now you're seen as close -minded and everything else but just to let you know even though we are much further down the road here in this country the same type of things were happening in Israel so again first century
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Israel half of the nation maybe up to half of the nation believed or supported something called no fault divorce might have been less than half but think about what the next thing that happened was once Israel adopted this this
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I'll just call it an abomination that's that's what it is it's an abomination once Israel accepted that in the year 33 what did they do so they were starting to accept no fault divorce then in the year 33
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Israel crucified the Son of God and then by 70
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AD the nation was destroyed now some people might think all that's a coincidence but I assure you it's not when a nation goes far beyond what
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God has said when they thumb their nose at the Lord spit in his face whatever analogy you want to use when a nation does that God will do what he will tear down that nation because this strikes to the fabric of a society so goes the family so goes the nation you would think people would learn from history but you know people are they do what they want to do and as the result they are doomed to repeat history but back to the original question they asked
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Jesus can a man divorce his wife for just any reason by the way this sermon just so you understand you know if you are divorced in this country half the adult population is divorced right and with Christians it's about the same percentage not much of a difference some of you it wasn't your fault so you know don't don't feel guilty for some people maybe it was your maybe you actually divorced your spouse and marry someone else and you said
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Jesus is calling this adultery well you really can't change the past can you you can't so this this sermon is more for people who are married don't get a divorce from here on out you can't change the past there is forgiveness in Christ but we need to see what
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Jesus said about this subject so the the question can a man divorce his wife just for any reason
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I like Jesus's response because he's like have you never read the Bible that's what he's saying to the
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Pharisees have you not read what God has joined together what let not man separate so when a divorce happens is a
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God doing it is a God sanctioning it not really I mean it's man who's doing
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God said no and that doesn't seem to be the statement what
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God is joined together let not man separate that does not seem to be a quote from Deuteronomy or Genesis this is
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Jesus's teaching okay this is the Lord speaking authoritatively that nobody should get a divorce and of course
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Jesus's statements are in line with the viewpoint of this Heavenly Father because in Malachi 2 16 it clearly says
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God hates divorce now is it permitted is it tolerated because God I believe
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God always allows for the innocent party to be protected if a man goes out and is a serial adulterer can the wife divorce from that man is she allowed to she is allowed to do that according to God's law now you could argue should she do it and you know you can bring up all sorts of scenarios but God allows it because God wants to protect the innocent innocent that is allowed but that's never
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God's perfect plan so what God has joined together let not man separate that's what
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Jesus said and then as critics respond in verse 7 wait a minute they say verse 7 they said him why then did
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Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away they think they have
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Jesus trapped this is what the Pharisees always tried to do trap
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Jesus in his words because Moses allowed for it and Jesus say you're saying no
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Jesus so you're at odds with Moses that's what they're trying to do and then
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Jesus said this is never what God wanted because he says from the beginning from Genesis it was not so so Jesus now is starting to turn the table on his critics because many of the
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Pharisees perhaps had divorced their wives following the teachings of some of the rabbis some of his critics may have actually been guilty of adultery so now
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Jesus is turning the tables on them look at verse 9 he says I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery this is admittedly a very high standard so without question many of the people listening to Jesus including some of his critics now it's like Jesus is accusing them or at least pointing out that they are guilty of adultery see they're probably thinking that's not the way this was supposed to go we're trying to condemn you
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Jesus and now you're condemning us did this apply to 10 % of the population back then 20 % 30 we don't really know but again it has implications for today see back then if they could just get a rabbi to interpret the law in such a way to excuse whatever they wanted to do they felt justified because you know that's it's according to the law it's according to the
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Bible this rabbi told me so he interprets it this way or that way and that's the same thing for today in Christianity today there are many pastors someone will go to their pastor with a sob story maybe they go to their pastor with a real legit issue but they tell their pastor they want to divorce their spouse and you know what many pastors are so weak they'll cave in and they'll come up with all sorts of biblical justifications why that's okay
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I actually heard a a Bible believing pastor on the radio say that you know what the
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Bible says divorce is allowed for this reason but actually think abuse is the
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Bible doesn't say abuse is a reason he said I think abuse is a reason that's fine that's his opinion that's not what the
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Bible says though what's my point ministers rabbis pastors they're they're always trying to broaden things they're always trying to make it easier for divorce to happen and they're always willing to twist scripture to make it okay how many exceptions is there someone wants a divorce there's there's really only one justification right one justification sexual immorality basically adultery that's what
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Jesus says but even then it's not God's ideal this is not what
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God wants verse 10 so after his disciples hear all of this the disciples of Jesus are like oh man if that's true okay if the standards are this high and there's all these people now that are technically guilty of adultery and they didn't even realize it if the standard is that high what's their conclusion it's better not even to get married isn't that what they say first hand his disciples said to him if such is the case of the man with his wife it is better not to marry now some of the
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Apostles were already married at this point but they're saying
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Jesus your standards are so high you know people are probably better off not getting married and now
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Jesus goes into teachings on celibacy he uses the term what's the term he uses and verses 11 and 12 he's talking about eunuchs now you say well eunuch isn't someone who's celibate a eunuch is someone who's been well what do you think of when you hear of a eunuch it's usually someone who's been castrated right and of course that type of thing doesn't really happen today so much but it was common back then before we get into the celibacy thing you say why would
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Jesus say this is he just trying to accuse his critics I think he wants the Israelites to understand something
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I mean this is the this is the biggest problem in trying to get through to a person so that they understand the gospel the average person won't believe on Christ they won't believe the gospel because they think they're a good person some of you saw the 60 minutes interview last week where they interviewed the
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Pope and the Pope said that the human heart he said is good he said people are fundamentally good the human heart is good isn't that such a wonderful thing what a nice old man saying that humanity is good and that's why people love him unfortunately the
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Bible says otherwise Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it
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Jesus said there is none good but God how does the
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Pope say that humankind is fundamentally good he said there are a few rogues a few sinners out there but people are basically good
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I'm thinking a few I mean Jesus again Jesus says all Romans 323 that verse that probably quote more than any other all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God but this is the problem that Israelites back then just like today they thought they were good the average
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Jew what I said I'm a godly person I believe in I believe in the Lord I go to synagogue
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I give so much money and I I'm a good person and here's the thing with good people good people don't think they need to be saved because they're good so when
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Jesus brings out this teaching on marriage okay so many people now are realizing okay yeah technically
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I am guilty of this Jesus and if you want to go back to Jesus's teaching on the
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Sermon on the Mount Jesus said if you haven't committed adultery like in the act you have committed it what in your heart so the purpose of Jesus is not just to accuse his critics he's trying to make people realize make the
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Jewish people realize you you do need salvation after all and if I have a purpose of teaching on this first of all
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I just preach through Matthew so this Sunday I was in Matthew 19 this is just the text
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I didn't decide to preach on this this is just what was here my purpose in preaching this is that couples would hear this and that people wouldn't get a divorce going forward but really if there's somebody who thinks oh
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I don't need Jesus I don't need this religion stuff I don't need to be saved because I'm a good person and I don't really buy into any of this no you're an adulterer that's
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I mean this is not my opinion this is what the Word of God say you are at the very least an adulterer at heart and admittedly this is bad news and this is probably probably why a lot of people don't go to church they don't want to hear that it's what people need to understand and then what's a person understands that then they're ready for the gospel then they're ready for the good news okay
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I got the bad news loud and clear Jesus I got it I'm guilty now
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I want to be forgiven you know the other option is you dig in your heels and you say
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I don't need forgiveness and people remain in this state all right we're almost done Jesus now teaching on celibacy here's the other option someone may say
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I'm not married this doesn't apply to me trust me I'm never getting married and that may be true for some people in this room well here's the thing and again eunuch is not try to get past that word for a moment but Jesus is saying look at verse 12 he says for there are eunuchs first he says not everyone can accept this teaching most people are gonna get married reality but verse 12 there are eunuchs who are born thus from their mother's womb there are people who are born with deformities certain parts don't function they can't have a family if someone is born like that this is a good option to serve
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God you can be a you're a eunuch from birth you can live a celibate life and serve
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God then he says there are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by men this is the castration that happened in the first century especially kings you know they wanted male servants to attend to the
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Queen and to other female members of the royal family but having men mixing you know that could lead to problems so they would castrate the male servants so some were made eunuchs by men but then he says there are some who are eunuchs and they have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven say this is someone who chooses to live a celibate life so they can better serve the
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Lord and this would describe someone like the Apostle Paul and that and of course
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Paul you know his opinion was he said this is the ideal in my opinion but he said most people can't do it they can't accept it so they should get married all right we're almost done let's turn to Ephesians chapter 5 we're just going to close here with a verse just to kind of tie this in to make final application we see
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Jesus in his teaching on marriage the the biblical pattern for marriage one man one woman for life
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I said there's teaching on gender 99 % of people don't need this to be taught to them but in the beginning
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God made them male and female two options there are some who need to hear that but this last passage here in Ephesians 5
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I think it's very very important because the gospel offers forgiveness and of course we expect the
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Lord to have a high standard there's one more element though we don't want to miss we get this statement about marriage in Ephesians 5 so we have the teachings of Christ now here the teachings of the
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Apostle Paul Ephesians 5 31 and 32 Paul says for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become what one flesh we understand that well enough it's this last statement that he uses the word mystery and it is kind of a mystery what he's talking about so let me read the verse again 31 for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church how is marriage a picture of Christ and his church don't always tell you everything is about Jesus everything in the
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Bible even if you don't think it's about Christ it is somehow about Christ even marriage is a picture of Christ and his church so what is this mystery if you read 10 commentators you're gonna get 10 different answers here's what
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I thought of what God is joined together isn't this what
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Jesus said what God is joined together let not man separate how does marriage point to Christ's relationship with his church
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I think of Romans chapter 8 you know spouses might leave spouses might get a divorce you might be on the other end of that but Christ will never leave there's a lot of marriages that end poorly there's no guarantee in this world a lot of people their hopes and dreams were all bound up in that one relationship and it came to an end so God's plan for marriage one man one woman for life it didn't work out that way it didn't work out and that's the reality of living in a sinful world but when it does work out it is a picture of Christ and the church because Christ will never leave or forsake his people what shall separate us the church from the love of Christ the scripture says nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
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Lord so in conclusion for those of us who have been joined to Christ through faith through baptism into the new covenant we are his what he is the bridegroom we are his bride and our marriage to him is one that no matter what happens it will never end let's pray
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Heavenly Father we thank you for your love towards us while we were yet sinners
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Christ died for us and Lord even though sometimes we are not faithful to you you still love us you forgive us you forgive us that 70 times 7 and then some