What is Biblical Divorce?

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studio's channel.

00:07

What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

00:17

We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

00:23

Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

00:33

Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

00:40

God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified, faithful, biblical elders.

00:49

And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons, and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

00:56

I do want to encourage you as a minister of the gospel to get plugged into a local body of believers.

01:02

Particularly, I think important, a reformed church would be best. But we want to encourage you to get plugged into a solid biblical church where you can fellowship, where you can worship, where you can serve, where you can be connected.

01:16

That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as again as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that he's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

01:29

You can, though, actually partner with Apologia Church as we proclaim the gospel and provide a defense of the biblical gospel all around the world.

01:37

You can do that by going to ApologiaStudios .com. You can partner with us by becoming All Access.

01:42

When you do, you help to make all of this possible, and you get all of our TV shows, our after shows, and Apologia Academy.

01:50

All of that, and you're a part of all that God is doing with us in the world to proclaim, herald the gospel of the kingdom.

01:57

You can partner with us, and I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

02:14

So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, if you would, open your

02:19

Bibles to Matthew chapter 19. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 19. Powerful section of Scripture, important section of Scripture for sure.

02:30

Very important that we get this right. I was reminded today of a radio program that I was on in California.

02:46

Actually, Marcus was in the room with me. A man named Jesse Lee Peterson, do not recommend by any means, but I was on this program to talk about end abortion.

02:59

Now it's a nationally syndicated program. He actually has a pretty significant following, so that'd be good for end abortion now that we got the message of the gospel into that context of abortion.

03:09

And I was reminded today of the danger of proof texting. And if you go check out that episode, it's somewhere at Apologia Studios, or just search

03:18

Jesse Lee Peterson, Jeff Durbin, you should be able to find that. Just listen to that great example, phenomenal example of the danger of proof texting.

03:29

And that is to say, ripping a passage out of the Bible, out of its context, wielding it like a sword against people, or taking numerous proof texts and sort of like cramming those together and slinging those out into the world.

03:43

Now, don't get me wrong, I think that it's of course important for us to have a text as a proof of something.

03:50

But the question is, are we actually reading that text in context? Is it faithful?

03:57

Are we letting the text speak for itself? Are we letting the Bible interpret the

04:02

Bible? Are we doing, big words now, exegesis, that is drawing out of the text what it means?

04:09

Or are we engaging in something called eisegesis, reading into the text something foreign that is not actually there?

04:18

It's a dangerous enterprise to be involved in, and I want to encourage you as the body of Christ here at Apologia Church to always be a

04:26

Berean. Be the kind of Christian that Paul was engaging with in Berea after he left

04:33

Thessalonica. He's in Berea. It says that when he preached there to the Berean Christians that they searched the, what,

04:41

Scriptures daily to do what? To see if what he was saying was so. It is not something that is condemned in Scripture.

04:50

To take something somebody says and to test it in the light of the Word of God. As a matter of fact, in Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 4, you have one of those acid tests of a prophet in the

05:03

Old Testament. One of those tests was, God had clearly revealed himself to his people. He told them about himself.

05:09

He told them about his love. He revealed himself. He knelt down and he spoke to them. And one of the things he tells them in terms of guarding themselves from error, he says to them in Deuteronomy chapter 13, 1 through 4 and onward, he actually tells them that even if somebody comes and has signs and wonders, like, it looks real.

05:30

It looks spiritual. It looks legit. Like, this seems like it's actually from God. It feels like it is.

05:37

But he says, if he leads you after other gods, gods which you have not known, that's how you know that person is not speaking from God.

05:46

So that was the standard that God set in his Word, is that the test is the Word of God. The previous revelation of God stands as the, big word again, principium, as the reference point.

05:57

It stands as the center. Everything launches from right here. Another example is

06:02

Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20. It's another one of those almost confessions and creeds, creedal statements of early believers in Yahweh, followers of the way.

06:13

It says, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them.

06:22

And in Jesus' day, in Mark chapter 7 and Matthew 15, there's an account you can read side by side, where Jesus has to confront in his day religious leaders who were actually imposing upon the disciples of Jesus what they saw as sacred tradition.

06:38

They had the Word of God, the Tanakh, the Torah running right here. They said, this is the Word of God. It's the standard.

06:44

But then they had over here a secondary standard running alongside the Bible, right next to it.

06:50

And they said, well, these are both authoritative. And what Jesus says, actually, as he confronts their tradition, he says this.

06:57

Moses says this. He says, but you say this.

07:02

He says, thus you invalidate the Word of God for the sake of your tradition. And so you see that the method, the

07:09

MO of Jesus was to take the previous revelation of God and attest it against what was being claimed out there.

07:15

This is the standard, the Word of the living God. Your other standards over here must be tested in the light of Scripture.

07:22

The Word of God is supreme, amen? That's the standard. And when the Apostle Paul was testing people in his day or referring to a doctrine of the apostolic transmission, he would actually say things like this.

07:37

Read it in Romans chapter 4. He'd say, what does the what? Scripture say.

07:44

What does the Scripture say? And he quotes the Word of God. Now, he could have spoken with apostolic authority and say, this is the

07:51

Word of the living God. I'm speaking with revelation from God. But when he wants to demonstrate to a Jew that this is, in fact, true and not merely from a man, he says, what does

08:01

God say? And then he quotes the Old Testament. What does the Scripture say? Or Jesus, in this section in Matthew 19, as you read beyond this,

08:11

Jesus actually challenges the Jews. He says, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

08:20

Have you not read what was spoken to you by God? Therefore, Jesus actually equates the reading of the

08:28

Word of God with God actually speaking. And that's consistent what we see in Scripture in 2

08:34

Timothy 3, 16 through 17. Our kids know these verses, right kids? You know this one.

08:39

All Scripture is what? Some of you guys are speaking

08:44

Greek. Some of you guys are speaking English. That's what you get when you come to Apologia Church, right? Or as Dr.

08:50

White would say, Apologia Church. But he's not here right now, so we'll neglect doing the Greek just right, right?

08:56

The Scripture says, all Scripture is theanoustos in the Greek. It is breathed out by God.

09:04

So it gives the impression of God himself breathing the words onto the pages. All Scripture is theanoustos, breathed out by God, profitable for correction, for training, for all these things.

09:16

We know what the Word of God says. It's the Word of God that is supreme. Now, all that to say as a lead into the message today, it is so vitally important as Christians that we firm up our commitments to the

09:32

Word of God as central. Amen? And when anybody, when the pastor behind this pulpit makes a claim, when your pastor, the shepherd at Apologia Church, or shepherds at Apologia Church, make any claim, it is not binding upon the people of God if it is not consistent with God's revelation.

09:53

Amen? So your pastor does not ever have authority above the Word of God to speak outside of the

10:01

Word of God. And if your pastor has a position that contradicts the words of the living

10:06

God, it is your pastor's voice that must be thrown out and the Word of God upheld.

10:12

That is the standard of God's people. And I want to say, the only people fearful of that standard are con artists, charlatans, and abusers.

10:26

Because any pastor who has submitted to Jesus Christ and his authority isn't going to abuse the people of God with things that are not in fact of God.

10:36

So test all things, hold fast to that which is true, and remember that as you come to this text in Matthew chapter 19.

10:44

I guess we'll start the sermon now. Okay. All that was part of my sermon, I just put it in a different spot.

10:51

So Matthew chapter 19, we're in verse one on, I'll read the text and we'll begin.

10:56

Today I'm actually reading from the Christian standard Bible, the Holman Christian standard. Some of you guys may have the

11:02

ESV or others, but this is the Holman Christian standard. Here now the words of the living and the true

11:08

God. When Jesus had finished saying these things, he departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the

11:14

Jordan. Large crowds followed him and he healed them there. Some Pharisees approached him to test him.

11:22

They asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?

11:28

Some of your translations may say what? For any cause. Haven't you read?

11:35

He replied that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female. And he also said, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh.

11:46

So they're no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

11:52

Why then they asked him, did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away? He told them,

11:58

Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning.

12:03

I tell you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery.

12:12

His disciples said to him, if the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it's better not to marry.

12:18

He responded, not everyone can accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who are born that way from their mother's womb.

12:26

There are eunuchs who have been made by men and there are eunuchs who have been made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven.

12:32

The one who's able to accept it should accept it. Thus far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray.

12:39

Father, we come into your presence, God, with your holy word. Lord, we don't deserve the gift of your word.

12:48

Here it sits in our laps, in our palms. And God, we want to first give you praise that you have spoken and that you gave us your word.

12:57

Lord, all of us submit to your word now and we ask for you to teach us. I pray, Lord, whatever hurt is in this room right now, that you would touch it.

13:08

I pray, Lord, wherever there's confusion over this issue, Lord, you would clarify. I pray that,

13:13

God, today you would allow me as a minister to be faithful, that you'd guard my mind, my mouth, and my heart from error, and that,

13:21

Lord, you would speak by your spirit today, that it would not be the words of a man, a mere man, that it be words, holy words from God, and that,

13:28

Lord, you would change us. Let your word cut us today, fill us, transform us.

13:34

Let me decrease Christ's increase in Jesus' name. Amen. So Matthew chapter 19, this is a famous section of scripture, and I want to say in the time that we live in right now, vitally important, so much is in Matthew 19, just one through nine.

13:54

We could honestly spend six months in this section applying it across the board in all the ways that we really need to in our day and in our generation.

14:03

With the profanation of marriage in our day, the teaching of Jesus here in Matthew 19 is vital.

14:09

With the profanation of proper distinctions in gender roles, the teaching of Jesus here in Matthew 19 is vital, and I want to say that in the context that we now live in, reading

14:22

Matthew chapter 19 verses one through nine on the news can have you labeled a hate preacher, or a bigot, or a monster, merely for quoting the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 19.

14:38

So it is vital for us as believers to really come to grips with, we are either going to believe this text, and we're going to stand on it, and we're going to preach it, we're going to declare it, or we do not.

14:49

We're either going to love God and love neighbor, and we're going to stand on these truths, and we're going to proclaim them with love and gentleness, humility, and respect, or we are going to actually embrace cowardice and flee from the culture, hating our neighbor, and neglecting to preach the good news to them.

15:06

Our nation today, the place that we live in today, this message will be heard around the world of course, and this is impacting us everywhere, we need to embrace something that my friend

15:16

Tim Bailey talks about, he wrote a good book on it, we talked to him this week actually on the radio program, or TV program, he wrote a book called

15:24

The Grace of Shame. Just pause there for a second, think about those words, those don't seem to go together naturally, right?

15:35

It doesn't make a lot of sense, the grace of shame. But it's true, if you think about what we are facing today in our world, in the context of the gospel, and all these different things with gender confusion, the profanation of marriage, everything happening around us, you have to really think about that phrase, that the grace of shame.

15:53

That is actually something we need to promote as Christians into the world, that shame over sin and brokenness and rebellion is a grace from God.

16:04

It's a grace from God. If you think about Romans chapter 1, what does the Bible say in Romans 1? It says that all of us know the true and living

16:11

God, amen, we know the true God, God's wrath is being poured out on all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, we know the true

16:18

God, he's made himself clearly known to all of us, everything around us is shouting to us about the one and only true and living

16:24

God, but Paul says we don't want God in our knowledge, we don't want to know him, we profess to be what?

16:30

Wise, we become what? Fools, and we exchange the glory of the incorruptible

16:36

God, the only true God, for an image, we worship and serve the creature rather than the what?

16:43

Creator, and what does God say in that text? He says about that condition, this universal rebellion of all of mankind, humanity, the fallen nature of the human race, he says, therefore

16:57

God gave them what? Over, God gave them over to do what was against nature, men with men, women with women, and it says although they know that those who deserve to do these things deserve to die, they not only do them, they give what?

17:19

Hearty approval to those who practice them, but I want you to notice about that, when

17:24

I say the grace of shame, the text in Romans 1 says about that fallen condition very clearly that one of God's judgments on people is to release them, to let them have what they want, to release them to their own, to say you don't want me, you don't want to know me,

17:45

I'm speaking to you every day and everything that I've made, I've made myself intimately known to you, but you suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, and so I will give you what you want, which is not me,

18:00

I will give you over to these affections, I'll give you over to this, I'll give you over to the sin,

18:05

I will let you have it, you can have it, you don't want me, and so have your way, and so what does

18:13

God do there? He releases them to their shame, to embrace it, to enjoy it, to delight in it, to want it, and so one of the great gifts of God is, listen, powerful, and you need to hear it the right way, one of the great gifts of God is shame.

18:34

It's recognizing our fallen condition, it's recognizing the peril we've gotten ourselves into, it's recognizing our plight as image bearers of God, seeing who we truly are in God's eyes, and understanding our need for his grace and his salvation, feeling the weight of our guilt and our shame, and that turns us to Jesus.

18:56

Nobody wants Jesus that doesn't understand the cross, that it's my sin that placed him there.

19:05

Nobody wants Jesus that doesn't understand the darkness of their own heart, so it is a grace, shame is a grace when

19:13

God reveals to people their desperate need for him that is God's love and affection in their life.

19:21

I want to say this, if you're a believer in this room today, if you are in Christ today, if you trust in Jesus today, I want to ask you about your experience when you first heard the gospel and you came to Jesus.

19:30

Whatever that looked like, it might have looked different for everyone in this room. Some of you guys are raised in Christian homes, and you had spots where maybe you thought you understood the gospel, but wherever you're at in your walk with Jesus, let me ask you to just do this real fast.

19:41

I want you to reflect quickly, reflect on that time where you can point to, where you said, oh my goodness,

19:50

I need him, where you were aware in that moment of who you were, that moment where you recognized

19:59

God's holiness, your depravity, your need for the cross, your need for Christ's righteousness, your need for new life, that moment where you felt shame.

20:12

I'm going to ask you a question as a Christian, do you ever want to let go of that moment? Would you ever want to have lost it in your life?

20:20

No, because it was that moment where God caused you to repent and to believe the gospel.

20:26

It was a gift to show us who we were, amen? That's why you're in Jesus today.

20:32

So we have to understand in the context of the culture we live in today, as we preach the gospel in the midst of a very difficult and hostile world, we have to understand the grace of shame.

20:42

We have to stop trying to minimize shame as we proclaim the gospel, because when people embrace their fallenness and their shame, that is what

20:52

God uses to draw people to Jesus. And so when we look at a teaching,

20:57

I know I'm getting to the text, believe me, but I want to say, how do we apply this? When we face the world today and we are ashamed ourselves to actually stand on these truths, we are, listen, ineffective in our gospel witness.

21:12

And more importantly, let me say this, this is more important than that. It is a full failure and lack of love to the person we are trying to minister to.

21:23

If we will not stand on the words of the living God that cut through their souls, it is hatred.

21:32

Recently, there was a conference called Revoice. How many of you guys heard of this conference?

21:38

Conference called Revoice. And it was heartbreaking.

21:45

So many people today that call themselves evangelicals, that word is almost meaningless anymore.

21:53

So many people who call themselves evangelicals are trying to approach the issue of gender and sexual identity and affection and homosexuality and these sorts of things, sodomy.

22:05

They're trying to approach it in a way that minimizes the shame. We're being told now within evangelical churches by famous evangelical leaders, no, your sexual identity, your affections, your sexual desires, those are not sinful.

22:24

It's acting on it that is sinful. So you can be all you want, that person inside, as long as you don't act on it,

22:35

God is good with that. One of the things that Tim said to us this week, which

22:41

I thought was profound, he said that is the most pharisaical thing imaginable.

22:48

And stop for a second, watch. Who do people usually call the Pharisees? The people who say these are

22:55

God's standards, you need to follow God's standards. In our day, that's the Pharisee. Tim brought something powerful out.

23:01

He says, no, no, no. When evangelicals are telling the people who struggle with homosexual affections and identities and pursuits, he says, when you tell them that they can merely be on the outside appearing as holy and righteous, but on the inside be struggling with all of these sins, he said that is

23:21

Pharisaism. Because what did the Pharisees do? What did Jesus condemn them for? What?

23:27

Cleaning what? The outside of the cup. While the inside was filled with so much evil and hatred.

23:34

And so when evangelicals leaders will not stand on the words of the living God here in Matthew 19, they hate the person who is dealing with homosexual affections.

23:47

Love embraces the grace of shame. Jesus, here in Matthew 19, remember the context.

23:55

What do we know? We have to read the Bible in its context. We cannot merely prove text. We know that Matthew is writing this whole book.

24:03

He has already said a lot ahead of time as we get to Matthew chapter 19. So just quickly, one finger

24:08

Matthew 19, quickly to Matthew 5. I will not do a full exposition on this. We already have those up.

24:14

You can listen to those later. But Matthew chapter 5, I just want you to have a reference point. Matthew 5, 17 through 19.

24:24

Again, I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible today. Here's the text, Matthew 5, 17.

24:29

Jesus says, don't think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill.

24:37

For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

24:48

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

24:56

But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

25:03

For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never get into the kingdom of heaven.

25:08

You need a righteousness that surpasses theirs. Where is that available, brothers and sisters? Only in Christ.

25:16

Only in Christ. You have to have a righteousness that actually surpasses theirs. They were devout. They were disciplined.

25:22

They were seen as the most disciplined religious leaders. Jesus says, you've got to have a righteousness that surpasses even theirs.

25:28

But I just want to point to you that first section of Matthew 5, 17. Here's the Greek words, me namasete.

25:36

Me namasete. In the Greek, that me is a big deal. It's a way to essentially wipe out any discussion or possibility.

25:46

Me namasete means this, not stop thinking. Jesus doesn't say to them, stop thinking.

25:53

Hey guys, stop thinking that. Jesus says this, me namasete, do not even begin to think.

25:59

Don't even let the spark start in your mind. Don't you start that thought.

26:05

Me namasete, don't even begin to think that I have come to destroy the law, the prophets. I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.

26:13

That is to say, watch. Place the law in its proper perspective.

26:19

A lot of people quote Matthew 5, 17 through 19. They say, Jesus says, don't think

26:25

I've come to destroy it, but to fulfill it, which means he did away with it. Brothers and sisters, what kind of contradiction is that?

26:31

I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to destroy it. What's that mean?

26:38

No, Charles Spurgeon was right. Faithful expositor of scripture. This is Jesus saying, I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets.

26:44

I came to fulfill them, put them in their proper place. And anybody that teaches anybody to break even the least of these commandments, you're least in the rule of God.

26:56

You are least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, keep that in mind as you approach Matthew 19.

27:02

Keep it in mind as you approach Matthew 19. For Jesus, his standard is

27:07

Torah. His standard is the law of God. We've already seen that in Matthew 15, where he compared and contrasted their tradition with the words of the living

27:17

God. And now we go to Matthew chapter 19. In Matthew chapter 19, the background of this,

27:24

Jesus, we know holds to Torah. We know he lifts Torah up. We know that he confronts them over their abuse of Torah and their contradicting

27:31

Torah. And now here's the conflict. Some Pharisees approached him to test him.

27:38

Verse three, they asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Here's the wording, ready? And literally, for any cause, you need to write that down.

27:49

It's vital because the context of this question, you must understand to properly interpret this.

27:57

For any cause. We know from the first century context, it was a popular perspective.

28:06

It was a popular practice. There was a rabbi named Hillel. And rabbi

28:12

Hillel had a school of thought in terms of how they interpreted the Bible.

28:18

There was the Hillelite, rabbi Hillel, the Hillelite marriage clause.

28:25

And what rabbi Hillel's school taught was that yes, divorce was permissible and you could divorce for, here's the words, any cause.

28:36

That was the clause that the Hillelites had essentially said is the only way you can divorce somebody.

28:43

It was any cause for any reason, just so long as you gave a divorce certificate.

28:49

At the same time, in the first century context, this is very well known. There was a rabbi named

28:55

Shammai. And Shammai was the leader of a school of thought called the

29:00

Shammait school of thought. And rabbi Shammai said, no, you can only divorce on biblical grounds.

29:08

In other words, the law of God tells people that yes, sometimes divorce actually happens in this fallen world, which is, by the way, the purpose of that statement when they say, well, then why did

29:18

Moses allow them command us to give divorce papers and to send them away? Jesus says,

29:24

Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. Why is divorce permissible?

29:30

Because of sin. Because of sin. But the issue here before us is the

29:38

Pharisees are actually challenging Jesus on a popular conflict in the day. They want to know what does this rabbi

29:45

Jesus say about this controversy between Shammai and Hillel? Where do you stand,

29:51

Jesus? Where are you at on the Hillelite marriage clause? Where are you at on the any cause divorce? Do you see that?

29:57

This is Jesus being approached by Fox News or CNN or whatever.

30:04

The news coming to Jesus, Lord Jesus, you're a rabbi. You have all these disciples and followers.

30:09

You say that you uphold the Torah, the law of God. You stand on God's law. You believe that, right? Jesus, what do you think about the any cause divorce for any cause?

30:21

That's the context of what's happening here. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds for any cause?

30:29

Now, I want you to see what the Jews in Jesus' day would have appealed to in the law of God in terms of divorce.

30:38

We know, of course, what we are going to say before we even approach this.

30:44

It's a famous verse, and it's this. God hates what? Say it with me now.

30:51

God hates divorce. Is it true that God hates divorce?

30:56

Yes. Does it mean that in a fallen world that God doesn't permit divorce? No. Yes, God hates divorce, but this is a fallen world, and because of the hardness of men's hearts,

31:08

God permitted a divorce decree to be given, but only on specific grounds.

31:15

In both schools of thought, Rabbi Shammai and Hillel, the

31:20

Hillelite marriage clause and the Shammaite marriage, both recognized that God's law had given them words about divorce, and here's where they're from.

31:30

I want you to see it with me. Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1. Run there real quick to the near beginning of your

31:37

Bibles, first five books of the Bible. In Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1, we see what

31:47

God says about divorce. This is in the Torah, the law.

31:53

If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, this is about sexual immorality, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

32:09

So Deuteronomy 24, verse 1 is in the law of God. If there is indecency, here's the wording here, listen, sexual immorality.

32:21

The wording here is sexual immorality. That's what's in the background there. So the clause there is if a man is married to a woman, it's case law.

32:29

It could have gone the other direction. It could have been a woman married to a man. God's law gives us case law examples to apply with general principles.

32:37

So it's not just about the man only. Case law. If the man finds that his wife is engaged in sexual immorality, he may divorce his wife.

32:47

He has to give her a certificate of divorce. Now let me ask you a question. Is that a divorce just for any cause?

32:55

No, that's a specific divorce on the grounds of what's the wording? Sexual immorality, fornication.

33:03

So there's one example. Another example of God giving a permission to divorce and to give a divorce certificate in the law of God is in Exodus 21, 10 through 11.

33:14

Exodus 21, 10 through 11. Again, we're looking at the

33:21

Torah as the standard here, and this was actually a law given about slaves, and it was in reference to neglect and abuse.

33:30

Neglect and abuse. I'll read the text, verses 10 through 11.

33:38

If he takes an additional wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife.

33:46

And if he does not do these three things for her, she may leave free of charge without a payment. So here's where God now is dealing with marriages that are happening within Israel.

33:55

They've embraced at the time the cultural habit of polygamy, marrying more than one wife.

34:03

God actually commands them in this very law, do not multiply wives.

34:09

He says, do not do it. Polygamy was condemned by God. Jesus says in Matthew 19, that was not what

34:15

God had from the very beginning, but God was gracious to his people when they did engage in it. But in this text, what do you see here in terms of divorce clause?

34:24

If he takes an additional wife, he must not reduce the what, guys? Food, clothing, or marital rights.

34:31

So in other words, the requirements of marriage according to Torah, listen closely, this is vitally important again.

34:39

The requirements of marriage according to the law of God was that you must provide in marriage these things.

34:45

Number one, ready? Faithfulness, sexual faithfulness. If you violate the sexual purity in the marriage, then there is a reason, a justifiable reason for divorce.

34:59

Does that mean that because infidelity enters the marriage that you ought to automatically get divorced?

35:06

Brothers and sisters, does that mean that? No. What does God command us? What? Forgive. Forgive and reconcile.

35:14

There are marriages in this room right now where infidelity has broken into that marriage and God redeemed those marriages.

35:21

Amen? Yes? Come on now, that's an amen. Yes. Praise God. He's healed marriages and healed people's hearts and he's changed them into completely different people.

35:33

He can redeem even a marriage where infidelity breaks in. However, if infidelity does break in, that is a justifiable reason for divorce.

35:43

But also according to this text, they had to provide food, clothing, and love.

35:50

Specifically, marital love. So what are the requirements of marriage?

35:57

Faithfulness, food, clothing, and love. Faithfulness, food, clothing, and love.

36:05

If you perpetually violate these calls in marriage, commands in marriage, then according to the law of God itself, it was permissible to give somebody a certificate of divorce.

36:19

Now watch. According to Torah, there are causes for divorce, but they are not, watch, any cause, just any reason.

36:29

And so those two schools of thought, Shammai, the law perspective, God's law is a standard for divorce, and then the

36:36

Hillelites, just any cause, that was the conflict. So they come to Jesus and they say this, Jesus, what's your perspective on the subject?

36:45

Are divorces for any cause lawful? Can you do it? Now that was the background, any cause divorce.

36:55

Rabbi Hillel again. Now what they said was this, sexual immorality, that's a cause.

37:03

And Jesus here in the passage was addressing the passage in Deuteronomy 24 .1.

37:09

Here's what he says, sexual immorality. I want you to look at the words he uses here.

37:14

Please go to it in the text, Matthew chapter 19, verse 9. Look how

37:19

Jesus now is showing you he's in the law of God perspective. He says,

37:25

I tell you, whoever divorces his wife except for, what's the wording? Sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.

37:35

Jesus shows you right there which side he falls down on. He's saying it's the law of God.

37:43

Deuteronomy 24 .1 says there must be sexual immorality. On that basis you could divorce.

37:51

So Jesus is showing his hearers here that he does not agree with the

37:56

Hillelite, the popular Hillelite marriage clause that says you could divorce your wife for, what is it guys?

38:03

Any cause. So get this, in Jesus' day, believe this, believe it or not, it seems so silly to even say this out loud.

38:10

Honestly, when I talk about this, I feel weird inside when I say this, but it is the honest truth.

38:18

It seems so adolescent and so childish, but it was true in Jesus' day.

38:26

People use the Hillelite marriage clause of any cause divorce to divorce their wives for burning the cooking.

38:37

That is the truth. They could divorce their wife in this day because their wife wasn't as pretty as she used to be.

38:44

They could divorce their wife because they didn't like how she cooked. They could divorce their wife for any cause, as long as they said, here's your divorce certificate,

38:57

I'm sending you away. And she could say, well I haven't violated anything, I didn't do anything, I'm not sexually immoral,

39:03

I haven't taken away any food, clothing, or love from you, what are you divorcing me for? I'd say,

39:08

I just don't think you're pretty anymore. See ya, right? That's literally what you could do, any cause divorce.

39:17

So the context in this passage, it's in the text itself, divorce for any cause.

39:24

And Jesus closes their loophole. He closes their loophole here, and he refers to Deuteronomy 24 .1,

39:34

he says sexual immorality is the standard, and he closes their loophole up, and he stops them.

39:40

Now I want to show you this, this is from Bonson, by the way, I encourage you guys, strongly encourage you to check this out.

39:46

Just Google search, Greg Bonson divorce, and I wanted to give it to everybody today, but our printer broke at the office, so I wasn't able to print them, so I apologize.

39:57

I may do it next week for you guys, but if you want to check it out this week, Bonson and divorce,

40:03

Bonson has a thesis on divorce that I strongly urge you to read, to get the full context of what the

40:09

Bible says here. Here's what Bonson says, quickly, on just one little section here. He says the scope of, quote, fornication, the word here for sexual immorality that Jesus uses, in biblical usage is broader than adultery, and even broader, listen, than illicit sexual intercourse.

40:30

In Matthew 19 .9, Christ clearly uses two distinct Greek terms for fornication and adultery.

40:37

They are not identical. If fornication is not the reason for the divorce, he says adultery will be the consequence.

40:45

In scripture, fornication can refer specifically to sexual sin of all sorts, whether premarital unchastity,

40:53

Ezekiel 23, 11 through 19, John 8 .41, sex outside of marriage by a widow,

40:59

Genesis 38 .24, returning to a divorced spouse after an intervening union,

41:05

Jeremiah 3 .2, adultery, Jeremiah 13 .27, Hosea 2 .2, prostitution,

41:10

Deuteronomy 23 .18, Micah 1 .7, incest, 1 Corinthians 5 .1,

41:16

homosexuality, Jude 7, marrying foreign wives, Hebrews 12 .16, or interreligious sexual union, 1

41:23

Corinthians 10 .8. It should be noted that sexual sin need not involve,

41:30

I will be careful because the children, but you get what I'm saying, it would include romantic kissing and all the other things normally called foreplay.

41:42

In scripture, fornication can also be used more generally for moral rebellion and unfaithfulness. This is what

41:48

I want you guys to listen to closely, it's so important. The terminology for fornication in the Old Testament can also be used more generally for moral rebellion and unfaithfulness.

42:00

When there is no figurative suggestion of sexual intercourse, for instance, arrogance, Isaiah 47 .10,

42:07

disbelieving God, Numbers 14 .11, or departure from God's standards of righteousness,

42:12

Isaiah 1 .21, 57 .3, 2 Kings 9 .22. Fornication appears to be part of a synecdote for all sins in Ezekiel 43 .9

42:24

and Hosea 6 .10. In Paul's epistles, fornication is sometimes run together with uncleanness, covetousness, and idolatry as a way of covering all forms of immoral conduct.

42:37

So get this, in the scriptures, the word for fornication, sexual immorality, is often used in the

42:43

Old Testament to actually refer to a host of sins and unfaithfulness, not related directly to anything physical.

42:52

It could just refer to unfaithfulness. Now, this is really important. If we look at the

42:59

Apostle Paul, go to your Bibles, let's do this quickly. In 1 Corinthians 7,

43:06

I want you to see Paul referring to the law itself in terms of marital responsibilities and the issue of divorce.

43:15

In 1 Corinthians 7, verses 3 -5, look what Paul says to the church about a requirement of marriage.

43:25

1 Corinthians 7, 3 -5, it says, A husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise a wife to her husband.

43:37

Married couples are like, eh. A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does.

43:44

In the same way, a husband doesn't have the right over his own body, but his wife does. Do not deprive one another, except when you agree for a time to devote yourselves to prayer.

43:55

Then come together again, otherwise Satan may tempt you because of your lack of self -control. So, the scriptures actually teach here, look, brothers and sisters that are married, don't deprive each other.

44:06

You want to guard each other from any kind of temptation. You guys, we need, as believers, to fulfill each other in marriage to protect one another against any kind of sin.

44:18

But notice what Paul is actually appealing to there. He's appealing to Torah that says specifically that in marriage, the husband and the wife have a duty before God to actually give physical love to their partner.

44:37

Physical love is a duty and marriage requirement, which is, by the way, listen closely, when we withhold that union from our spouse as a method of punishment, we are actually violating

44:51

God's law and doing things that actually put us in a place where it's permissible to divorce.

45:00

According to the law of God, if you are withholding that from your spouse as a form of punishment or to just withhold it from your spouse, that is actually violating one of the commitments of marriage.

45:15

That's what the Bible says. Paul refers to that here in 1 Corinthians 7. I'll give you another example.

45:21

In 1 Corinthians 7, same passage, verse 33. 1

45:27

Corinthians 7, verse 33. Look what Paul does here. 33 through 34.

45:34

He says, but the married woman is concerned by the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And if it's interested or divided, the unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the things of the

45:43

Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

45:54

I'm saying this for your benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is proper and so that you may be devoted to the

45:59

Lord without distraction. There's the example of Paul talking about the marital requirement of physical love for your partner.

46:06

But I want you to see Paul actually referring to the law of God again in marriage requirements, the faithfulness, food, clothing, and love requirements.

46:18

Faithfulness, food, clothing, and love. If you go to your Bibles to Ephesians 5, here's

46:25

Paul now applying the law of God to marriage in Ephesians 5. Popular verse, right?

46:30

We all know this one. Ephesians 5, verse 22, it says this, wives submit to your husbands as to the

46:39

Lord, because the husband's the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He's the savior of the body.

46:44

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

47:00

He did this to present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.

47:08

In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies.

47:13

He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church.

47:23

There it is again, see? Love and provision. What is it in God's law?

47:29

Faithfulness, food, clothing, and love. Paul here now is interacting with the law of God in reference to Christ and the church and our marriages, and he says you are to love your wife and you are to provide for your wife.

47:45

We're members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

47:52

So here's a passage where the apostle Paul is actually appealing to the law of God and marriage requirements, but I want to point out a failure.

48:03

Sometimes, because of proof texting and not understanding the law of God and what God says about divorce in his law, there are many well -intentioned pastors who have counseled women in abusive relationships that they can't leave their husbands.

48:20

They can't divorce. Maybe the husband has actually abandoned the family. He's destroying the finances.

48:26

He's no longer providing for the family. He's disappeared now. He's with another woman, or maybe this is a husband who actually engages in physical violence against his wife, which is the ultimate sin in terms of caring for and loving the spouse.

48:43

He's giving her black eyes. He's broken her wrist and her ribs, and there are ministers of the gospel that have told those women, you are not permitted to divorce your husband because he has not committed adultery.

48:58

And I want to say that is an unfaithful handling of the word of God and the law of God.

49:05

God's law does permit divorce in those cases.

49:11

Should it always be pursued? No. There should be a working towards reconciliation, but we cannot say that a woman is guilty for violating

49:20

God's law when she has been abused and abandoned in that way. So watch.

49:25

On the one hand, you have many ministers, again, well -intentioned, that say by proof text,

49:30

Jesus says, unless it's because of sexual morality, it's going to be adultery. Well, let me just hang on to that for a second, and I want you to do this with me.

49:38

Let's test all things, hold fast to that which is good. Brothers and sisters, here's the question. Follow me on this one.

49:44

Here's the question. Does God's law or word contradict itself? Never. Never.

49:50

So if we find a teaching we have that contradicts a passage of scripture, is it scripture that's wrong or our teaching that's wrong?

50:01

Our teaching, right? So here we go. Jesus says this, unless it's on the basis of sexual morality in reference to the

50:07

Hillelite marriage, any cause, he says, unless it's because of sexual morality, it's adultery.

50:13

And somebody might say, okay, only sexual morality, let's proof text that. If there's no sexual morality, no divorce permissible.

50:20

Now go to your Bibles, to 1 Corinthians 7, verse 12.

50:29

1 Corinthians 7, verse 12. Paul says this, but I, not the

50:40

Lord, say to the rest, by the way, not the Lord doesn't mean this isn't inspired scripture. Paul is referencing specifically here,

50:47

Jesus teaching on marriage. In other words, this wasn't in the gospels. He says, if any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

51:02

Paul's saying, don't divorce your unbelieving spouse. Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce her husband.

51:13

That's not cause to divorce. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified, made holy by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by the husband.

51:22

Otherwise, your children will be unclean. But as it is, they are holy. That is sanctified, set apart.

51:29

Doesn't mean the unbelieving husband is saved. It means he is set apart because he's married to a believer.

51:36

But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. A brother or sister is not bound in such cases.

51:42

God has called you to live in peace. Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife.

51:50

What does Paul say here? If you're in a situation where the husband or wife abandons the marriage, then that believer who was left and abandoned is free.

52:03

Now, brothers and sisters, quick question. Is there any mention here about sexual immorality by way of fornication?

52:10

None. All that's mentioned here is abandonment. And Paul says, the person who's been abandoned in the marriage is free to remarry.

52:23

Divorce is permissible in that case. Now, take it real fast. I want you to follow with me and let's test it.

52:30

The claim is made, you can only divorce on the grounds of sexual morality and no other reason.

52:39

Now, let's test that with Paul, an inspired apostle who says this, abandonment is cause for divorce.

52:49

So when you put those together, you see that the scriptures actually have a unified testimony about what is permissible in terms of divorce.

52:58

Say it with me, guys. Faithfulness, food, clothing, love.

53:06

Faithfulness, food, clothing, and love. That was the requirement under Torah. And sexual immorality was a cause for divorce.

53:16

I want to show you this. I'll try to go fast here. I'm so excited about this next section.

53:22

I'm going to resist everything in me to go super long on this, but I do want you to taste this.

53:29

Somebody might say, I hate the idea of divorce. I'd say, great, you're in good company. God does too.

53:36

He hates it too. Well, I don't want people to abuse what the Bible says about causes for divorce.

53:42

You're in good company. God condemns that as well. Just because there are sins in this area does not permit you to divorce like that.

53:52

Amen? Are we there? Yes? Yes. But God divorced

53:58

Israel. I'll say that again because that somehow is controversial in our day.

54:04

God divorced Israel. He called Israel his wife.

54:10

There's this amazing, amazing section in Scripture that has so many cool things in it.

54:16

I just want to share with you real fast. Go read Ezekiel 16, and just the middle section of Ezekiel.

54:21

Just read how God describes his love relationship with Israel. He talks about her like a woman.

54:26

He talks about Israel like a woman that he finds, and she's all messed up, and she's all torn to pieces.

54:33

And he says he beautifies her. He puts beautiful clothing on her. He makes her beautiful.

54:38

And watch this. I love this. He says that he puts a ring in her nose. Apparently, God loves facial piercings.

54:53

So you see a lot of Christians today that are like, what's these Christians wearing on the facial piercings and all these things?

54:58

It's like, well, I'm just trying to follow Yahweh. He likes them. But he says he beautifies

55:03

Israel his bride. He puts beautiful clothing on her. He lifts her up out of the dirt. He says he puts a ring in her nose.

55:10

It's his glorious bride. And then he says, and I'm quoting now from the

55:16

Word of God, he says that you played the harlots. The word he uses there is harlots.

55:23

Another word for it is whore. He says you played the harlots. You went off to other nations.

55:30

And he says, but you're different. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm quoting scripture here, so nothing to be embarrassed about it.

55:36

He says, but you're different than other harlots. He says because when other harlots are prostitutes, they actually get paid for what they do.

55:45

He goes, you go and you lay by the side of the road and you present yourself to everybody coming by and you receive nothing for what you do.

55:54

That's what God says in Ezekiel about Israel. And God divorced Israel. You can go read the passages later,

56:00

Isaiah 50 verse 1, Jeremiah chapter 3. God divorced

56:06

Israel for her harlotry, for her unfaithfulness, for her abandoning covenant with him.

56:15

God divorced Israel. Somebody says God hates divorce. Yes, but he actually did give

56:22

Israel a divorce decree. And I believe, whet your appetite, someday we will do it together.

56:28

Lord willing, we will do it at Apologia Church on a Sunday. We're going to go through the book of Revelation.

56:33

I cannot wait. But in Revelation chapter 17, go there quickly, whet your appetite.

56:40

In Revelation 17, you have an example of God using the language he used about Israel, the harlot bride, in Revelation chapter 17.

56:52

Famous passage, just go there quickly. I believe that the book of Revelation has some themes in it, major themes.

56:59

One of the themes in the book of Revelation is God's divorce of Israel. His full and final divorce of the covenant breaking

57:06

Israel and the remarriage to the bride, the new Jerusalem coming down into heaven from God, the church.

57:13

A couple of things to show you, this divorce happening in the book of Revelation to unfaithful

57:19

Israel. It says, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and spoke with me, come

57:25

I'll show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute, who is seated on many waters.

57:30

The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her. That's what God said in the Old Testament over and over and over again.

57:37

And those who live on earth have become drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality. Then he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness.

57:45

By the way, what if they become drunk on the wine of her what? Her what?

57:51

Fornication, her what? Sexual, are you afraid to quote the Bible right now? Everyone's like, we're in church,

57:58

I'm not gonna say those words. It's in the text guys, relax. They become drunk on the wine of her fornication, her sexual morality.

58:08

What was permissible according to Torah for divorce? What was the word? Fornication, sexual morality.

58:16

This is a covenant lawsuit against the covenant breaking Israel. It says he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness.

58:24

By the way, let's use our minds and wrap it around the word of God.

58:29

Brothers and sisters, think like a Jew, think like a Jew. A Jew wrote this book. He wrote it to early

58:35

Christian Jews. Think like a Jew. You're a Jew now, ready? Like quick test. We'll do it this way.

58:41

Much easier for Americans. Are you ready? I'll throw it out quickly. Ready? Here we go. Just get ready. Get your minds ready.

58:46

I want you to immediately get an image in your mind. I want it to pull together feelings and everything you got.

58:52

I want you to let it pull everything together. Now I want you to do this experiment with me. Ready? 9 -11.

59:02

Think about it. Think about all the feelings now associated with that. Think about where you were. Think about whether that was bad, horrible, awful.

59:14

What were you doing that day? What do you remember about the day? We all remember everything. Do you remember everything?

59:20

Such an amazing, life -changing experience that day was, right? But when

59:26

I say, watch, 9 -11 to Americans, instantly you have images, feelings, all that comes together at once.

59:34

9 -11. It's a word that brings about a symbol that draws together memories.

59:40

It draws together a mindset and feelings. Now you're talking to Jews now in the first century and you hear the word harlot, prostitute, and she's in the wilderness.

59:54

Now you're Jewish. Think with your Bibles now. What does the word wilderness bring up in a

01:00:01

Jew? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? What did Israel do in the wilderness?

01:00:08

What did they do? Wander. Why? Because of disobedience and covenant breaking and sin.

01:00:14

So now watch, you see this harlot and she's in the wilderness. You go as a

01:00:19

Jew, ding, ding, ding, ding. I know who that is. He's talking about unfaithful Israel. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

01:00:32

The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. Quickly, Rome had seven imperial provinces or seven cities, ten imperial provinces.

01:00:46

The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet. Those are the priest's colors.

01:00:51

So this harlot has blasphemous names. She's riding Rome.

01:00:58

She's dressed in the priest's colors. She's adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. That's what

01:01:03

God said he would do with her in the Old Testament. She had a golden cup in her hand, filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of her prostitution.

01:01:10

On her forehead was written a name, mystery, Babylon the Great. You're a

01:01:16

Jew now. Babylon. Good or bad? What was Israel and Babylon for?

01:01:23

Unfaithfulness, breaking the covenant. So this harlot is in the wilderness, riding

01:01:28

Rome, dressed like a priest, adorned beautifully. She is drinking blood, and on her head says

01:01:36

Babylon, the mother of prostitutes and the detestable things on the earth. Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

01:01:46

Now, remember Jesus, when he talked to Jerusalem in Matthew 23, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

01:01:57

He says, how often I wanted to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but Jerusalem, you were not willing.

01:02:07

Jerusalem, you weren't willing. I send to you scribes. I send to you prophets.

01:02:12

He says, and you will do what? Scourge them. You will kill them. You'll put them in jail. What did

01:02:18

Jesus say about first century Jerusalem? What was she going to do to his people? She was going to try to destroy them.

01:02:25

And now John, I believe was sent to Patmos by Nero. He was the only surviving apostle.

01:02:32

That's where he wrote this revelation. Jerusalem is still standing. It hasn't fallen yet. And Jerusalem is there,

01:02:38

John says, this harlot with Babylon in the wilderness, killing Christians on Rome, linked up with Rome.

01:02:47

He says that that beast about to turn on her, burn her, make her desolate. And the angel actually says here, he says, the woman who you saw is that great city.

01:03:01

Every single time John uses that great city in revelation, he's referring to Jerusalem.

01:03:07

Now, you might be asking the question, Pastor Jeff, what on earth are you on about? Here's what

01:03:14

I'm on about. In the Old Testament, you have examples of God calling Jerusalem, Israel, his bride, and he puts her away for her covenant unfaithfulness.

01:03:23

He divorces her. I believe that in Book of Revelation here, you have an example of God giving a divorce decree to first century covenantally unfaithful

01:03:35

Israel, Jerusalem. Because what happens after Revelation 17 here, after God says that Rome is going to turn on Jerusalem and destroy her, a couple of years later, it happened exactly as John described here, literally burn the city to the ground.

01:03:55

You have a description of something else that happens in Revelation. Turn to your Bibles to Revelation 21. After the description of the destruction of the harlot, the covenantally unfaithful bride,

01:04:08

John then changes the story. After she is judged, it says this, then

01:04:14

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, words that were describing the covenant in the

01:04:20

Old Testament. For the first heaven and first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the what?

01:04:28

The what? The new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a what?

01:04:37

Like a what? A bride. Like a bride adorned for her husband.

01:04:44

You have the destruction of the harlot bride, covenantally unfaithful

01:04:50

Jerusalem. She's put away in the first century, destroyed by God's armies in Rome.

01:04:56

And then it says, out of heaven from God was the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ coming down out of heaven from God, hitting the earth.

01:05:06

And then it says in Revelation that the invitation comes from the new Jerusalem. Come, all who are thirsty, come drink.

01:05:13

Come drink. Everyone who wants the waters of life, come and drink. And it says the leaves in on the trees are for the healing of the nations.

01:05:22

My point to show you that is this. You have examples in scripture of God actually giving a divorce decree to his bride for her unfaithfulness.

01:05:33

In the Old Testament, he did it several times. And then I believe in Revelation, he gave the final divorce decree to unfaithful

01:05:41

Israel. My point here in demonstrating that is to show us that God's word clearly teaches us that there are permissible reasons, means for divorce only because of the law of God.

01:05:58

Just quickly one more time, say it with me. Faithfulness. Okay, I hate pastors that make people talk to each other and make them talk back to them in church.

01:06:09

But today I'm going to do it because I want you to get what the law of God says here. Faithfulness, food, clothing, love.

01:06:18

That was God's command in scripture for marriage. Quick thing, just as an overview,

01:06:28

Jesus says this, Matthew 19, and we're finished. I want you to see the words here from Jesus and how they apply, how we can use it today as missionaries to our culture.

01:06:41

Matthew 19, after he addresses that on any ground or as he's addressing it, he says, verse four, have you read, he replied, that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female.

01:06:56

And he also said, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

01:07:04

So they're no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore when God is joined together, let no one separate.

01:07:09

Just some quick observations. One, Jesus says, from the beginning, from the beginning,

01:07:17

God made them male and female. So watch, all of the attempts to distort gender and sexuality in our day and marriage in our day come clean against Jesus' position in here, because Jesus says, from the very beginning of creation,

01:07:36

God made them what? Male and female. So to Jesus, it's

01:07:41

God's creative order, God's purpose, from the beginning that you have men and women, male identity and female identity.

01:07:51

And I have a very simple test for you in terms of if you are one or the other.

01:08:03

I think you understand. But notice what Jesus says here in terms of marriage.

01:08:08

He says, beginning male and female, and he says what? For this reason, a man will leave his what?

01:08:16

Father and what? Mother. So Jesus says the creative order from the beginning was male and female, and then the guy leaves his father and his mother.

01:08:28

That's God's purpose. That is his creative order.

01:08:33

That's the blueprint for the world, male and female. There's your genders, there's your identities.

01:08:40

And then the man leaves his father and mother, male and female, and he comes together with his wife, the woman, and they become one flesh.

01:08:52

Let no one separate it. This is, of course, Jesus destroying any attachment to polygamy, polyamory.

01:09:00

As a cultural assessment, we have, because we've abandoned God's word as the percipient, as a centerpiece of all that we believe, all that we know, our cultural assessment is that there is a limitless number of genders today.

01:09:14

I saw somebody once mentioned 60 -some -odd genders, which I think is insane.

01:09:22

Whatever I want to identify today as, you have women today that identify as cats, not as women.

01:09:30

People who identify as dogs. People who identify as horses. I want to say, when

01:09:36

God's word is not the principium, when it's not the reference point, when

01:09:41

God's word is not the standard, you say, Jesus, I don't need your word, I don't need your law,

01:09:47

I don't need your standards. Our culture has done that for the last hundred years at least.

01:09:52

They've said, no God, no God's word, and that has led to no meaning, no coherent definitions, no ethics, no standards.

01:10:04

We can't even tell each other nowadays whether somebody's a boy or a girl.

01:10:09

Are you out of your minds? What has happened to us as a culture? We've abandoned

01:10:15

God's word, and we've got away from the most simple definitions. Man, woman.

01:10:23

Leave father, mother, join to your wife, become one. The very blueprint of all that God does in the world is the family.

01:10:33

Is it any surprise to us that when the world comes against God's order, the very thing they try to attack is what

01:10:40

Jesus says here, from the beginning, male, female, mother, father, wife, one flesh.

01:10:51

We need to understand when we hear these things that there are people that are genuinely struggling with sin, and what they should never hear from us in our proclamation of the gospel is this,

01:11:04

Jesus wants you to be straight. They might hear people who struggle with sodomy, homosexual thoughts and affections and desires, they might hear a message like this right now and totally misinterpret me.

01:11:18

They might say he's hating on us, he's trying to hurt us, he's trying to wound us. I'm saying no,

01:11:23

I'm trying to save you. I'm trying to save you. And they might hear someone preaching what

01:11:30

Jesus says here about gender and identity and sexuality and marriage, father, mother. They might say, so what you're saying is all these desires

01:11:38

I have, I just need to just become straight and then God will love me. Let me say this to you right now, being straight is not what causes

01:11:45

God to love you. He loves his people despite themselves. Despite themselves.

01:11:52

And you could watch, be a person struggling with homosexual desires, and you could watch, become straight and still be on your way to hell.

01:12:03

You could abandon homosexuality and sodomy, you could abandon it all, and you can become straight and you could still not know

01:12:11

God, not have peace with God because Jesus isn't looking for you to become straight or fix yourself up and polish yourself so he accepts you.

01:12:18

That is not the gospel. It'll never save you. Jesus does not want you to be straight.

01:12:24

He's calling you to come to him for life first and then pursue holiness.

01:12:30

When you are saved and you pursue holiness, those affections and desires transform only because God has given you a new heart.

01:12:39

He's removed a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. The message of the gospel is the same.

01:12:46

Listen closely. I have to say this because the world needs to hear it. Brothers and sisters, I know it's been going long, but you have to hear it.

01:12:52

Jesus did not sit people down and say, thieves over here, liars over here, adulterers over here, drunks over here, sodomites over here, homosexuals over here.

01:13:05

He never sat people down like that. He had crowds he spoke to and he called all of them to repent and believe the gospel.

01:13:14

There was never an identification of, well, you have particular needs as the thief. Sit down over here,

01:13:20

I'll give you your gospel. And you over here who struggle with these sexual temptations, here's your gospel.

01:13:26

The call is this, we're all a wreck. We are all a complete and utter disaster spiritually.

01:13:33

You're a mess and if you're trying to fix yourself with your righteousness or coming straight or anything, you are missing

01:13:39

Christ completely. People come to Jesus as beggars, as beggars.

01:13:46

Jesus identifies this premier moment of the Pharisee and the tax collector and the Pharisee's bragging because he's not like the tax collector and he's thanking

01:13:54

God that he's not like other men and he's showing God all the things that he does, thanking God for his grace and making him like that and the tax collectors are way off doing what to his chest?

01:14:05

Beating his chest, beating the place of his passions and the centerpiece of all of his affections.

01:14:11

He's beating it as though he knows that that's the source of his corruption and all he can do is stand away from God at the temple.

01:14:19

He has no place to be there and he knows it and he can't even do what the Pharisee does and that is look up to God.

01:14:27

He can't look up, he just puts his head down and all he says is, God be merciful to me a sinner.

01:14:34

That's all he has to offer. He has nothing else, nothing. And Jesus says of the two of them, the tax collector went to his house justified, declared righteous.

01:14:52

Are you ready for the most awful words ever? Rather than the other.

01:14:59

Which means the tax collector who had nothing, was bankrupt and broken and foul and all he did was plead for mercy, he went to his house right with God and had peace and life and it means the

01:15:13

Pharisee who boasted in his works, who boasted in God's grace and the fact that he wasn't like others, the

01:15:19

Pharisee went to hell. So the call to anybody struggling in these areas is this, come to Jesus, come to Jesus for life, drink the living water, come to Jesus, repent and believe the gospel, fall at his feet, receive his righteousness, open your hands up and receive the gift of eternal life and open your mouth to receive living water, receive him by faith and faith alone.