Pauls Epistle to Colossians (19)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Let's turn in our Bibles to Colossians 3, once again please. Moving along in our study, today we'll begin to consider a new section in this epistle of Paul to the church at Colossae, the house church at Colossae.

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The subject of the Christian life has been the main emphasis of this portion of Paul's epistle that we've been studying.

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He began to address this subject of the Christian life beginning with verse 5 of chapter 3 and it continues through verse 6 of chapter 4.

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And within this larger section on the Christian life, we have already dealt with those verses in which the

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Apostle set forth what Christians were to put off, verses 5 through 11, in which the

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Apostle identified behavior and attitudes that should not characterize Christians.

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And then he set forth in verses 12 through 17, the passage we've considered in the last few weeks, behavior and attitudes that should characterize

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Christians, things that we should put on. But now, beginning today with Colossians 3 .18,

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the Apostle began to provide instruction regarding the relationships of Christians with others, particularly how

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Christians are to behave toward those in authority over them. So this has application for every one of us, because every one of us are under authority in one form or another.

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And so Paul addressed here the important principle of submission to human authority on the part of God's people.

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And of course, Paul's instruction was directly applicable to the large households that existed in the first century, and probably the church at Colossae met in a large household in that town.

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But of course, we understand the Apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, showed forth the abiding authority for Christians, that those under human authority have a responsibility to labor with diligence and obedience to the directives of those whom the

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Lord has placed over them. Very practical. And so Paul also, by the way, gives a word directed to those in authority within the household and workplace, that they treat those under their authority with decency, respect, and consideration.

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And so we have very practical advice here that I don't think any one of us will find unpractical.

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It speaks to us where we are. I want to read these verses, Colossians 3 .18, chapter 4, verse 1.

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Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

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I can just imagine a silent amen by the men after the first clause is read, and a somewhat silent amen by the women after the second sentence is read.

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That tends to be our reaction. Children, obey your parents in everything, everything, for this pleases the

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Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.

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And this slavery issue, we'll of course address it. Not today, we won't get that far, but next week.

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Should not be equated with the immoral, unjust slave system of modern times, modern

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Europe and America. This was more of an economic condition in the

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Roman Empire where people, rather than declare bankruptcy, would sell themselves for a period of time as an indentured slave to pay off a debt.

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And so we'll talk about that, earthly masters. Slaves obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people -pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

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Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the

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Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

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For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

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Christians of course have before them in the whole of Holy Scripture the setting forth of the will of God in all matters of faith and practice.

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The Bible is our authority. It is the Word of God. It's our instruction book for how to live before God in his world.

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And so we accept this book as authoritative instruction from God to us. We seek to understand it and apply it in every aspect of our belief and practice.

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And here in the passage before us, God instructs us in the kind of desires and attitudes we should possess and exhibit in our family relations, but also in work relations.

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Now the instruction that our Lord sets before us in this passage presumes the worldview that is reflected in all of God's Word.

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Please understand that. It presumes something here. Paul is assuming something, a worldview as set forth in the

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Scriptures. We understand our world and our relationships with people in this world as our

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Creator has set forth for us in his most holy Word, the Bible. The Christian worldview has predominated, of course, in history, at least in our

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Western hemisphere, since the days of Rome's fading glory. It wasn't the preeminent worldview when

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Paul wrote this epistle. It was among Christians, of course, the people of God and Israel. Rome had a different worldview.

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However, in the generation in which we now live, our society has jettisoned old values and old standards.

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A new worldview has become predominant, one created and promoted by those with a non -Christian, even anti -Christian worldview.

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That is the world that we now live in and have for a generation. The new worldview has been formed and shaped largely by the entertainment industry, both in cinema and music, but also promoted by the school system, the elementary school system, as well as so -called higher institutions.

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One of the major victims of this new worldview is the dissolution of marriage and the family that God has prescribed in his

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Word. And certainly we've seen that, haven't we? Who could deny it? And many, even in churches, sadly, no longer have a clear and precise understanding of what the

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Word of God prescribes regarding the family, the family with its foundational institution of marriage.

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You can't assume anything anymore, can you? A generation ago,

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I would have come across this passage in, say, preaching and teaching and want to kind of pass over it rather quickly, because everybody knows these things, understands these things, believes these things.

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Not so any longer. We live in a different world. It's a different worldview, amazingly.

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And so I thought it would be beneficial, therefore, to rehearse before us the major teachings of God's Word regarding these matters, just in one shot, one

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Sunday morning, to rehearse things that we understand about the family and about marriage as set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. And then we will begin to address the precise instruction that we have before us in Colossians 3, because I think that understanding

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Colossians 3 is based upon and builds upon a right understanding of a worldview as set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. Now I thought this would be a good thing, especially in the light of a news item that came out in the last couple of days.

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And to me it was an amazing thing, a shocking thing. One of the institutions that has promoted a traditional understanding of marriage, of course, has been the

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Roman Catholic Church, because they have been dominant, of course, in Western society for many, many centuries.

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And although we would differ from some of what Rome has taught regarding the institution of family and marriage,

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Roman Catholicism has maintained and promoted for centuries a Christian understanding of marriage and the family, but that seems to be changing.

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Here is the news item released two days ago, Friday, I think, maybe Thursday. Pope Francis insisted that individual conscience be the guiding principle for Catholics negotiating the complexities of sex, marriage, and family life in a major document released

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Friday that rejects the emphasis on black and white rules for the faithful.

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Do you realize how profound that is? It is no longer the dogma of the

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Church that is going to be the standard by which you assess what is right sexually, family -wise, what constitutes a family or relationships, but rather one's conscience.

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That is profound. And this wasn't a casual statement, say like a politician who throws something out on the campaign trail and then he tries to back off a couple hours later.

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This is the result of a 256 -page document, the Joy of Love. It declares that Francis makes no change in Church doctrine.

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That's not true. It goes on to say, but in selectively citing his predecessors and emphasizing his own teachings,

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Francis makes clear he wants nothing short of a revolution in the way priests accompany

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Catholics, saying the Church must no longer sit in judgment and throw stones against those who fail to live up to the gospel's ideals of marriage and family life.

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In other words, what Rome has held as gospel ideals of marriage and family life is no longer the standard, but now it is the individual conscience.

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That is a profound shift. Pope Francis declared that dogma will no longer be the standard by which faith and practice are assessed, but in its place the individual conscience will become the standard.

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I would think traditional Catholic priests, and practicing Catholics everywhere, must be stunned by this announcement if they think through what it means and the implications.

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The Church will no longer sit in judgment against those who fail to live up to the gospel's ideals of marriage and family life.

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Now, of course, historically Rome has declared and assumed that both the Holy Scriptures, the Bible and Tradition, are co -equal authorities over all faith and practice.

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Of course, Protestants have rejected that and said, no, Scripture is alone, so is Scripture alone. But this declaration of Pope Francis conflicts with this long -held tenet of Rome.

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Now one's own conscience will be the guiding principle for Catholics with respect to the complexities of sex, marriage, and family life.

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And, of course, we would argue that the main major problem with this new stance is that the conscience is no reliable, objective standard for Christian behavior.

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You know, the men of ISIS slaughtered off 170 people the other day because they were being governed by their conscience.

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Isn't that right? Their conscience shaped by Sharia law and their understanding, no doubt, informed by radical

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Islamic teachers. The conscience is no objective standard. It is a subjective standard of measurement, and therefore it's really no true standard by which behavior may be assessed or evaluated.

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I don't know how they're going to get away with it. I think there's going to be an uprising to this. I understand what they're doing.

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They're adapting to the changing culture. And so, pragmatically, it's very clever and very wise, and the church will go on and apparently grow and welcome anybody and everybody, but its message is going to be diluted.

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Even if we differ from that message, it's going to have adverse implications. And again, those that are more traditional, you know, will be reacting to this,

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I suspect. It's fascinating. We're living in epic changing times as these things unfold for us.

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And so, conscience is not an objective standard of measurement, but rather subjective.

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And so, I thought it would be good if we took a few minutes and considered just what the conscience is and what it is not, and hopefully we'll better understand just how foolish and faulty this current or present principle is that is being set forth.

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And by the way, I think he's just reflecting the attitude and opinion of most everybody in society, by the way, is your conscience is the final arbitrator regarding to what's good and evil and right and wrong.

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Not an objective standard outside yourself. Not the Bible. And now for Catholics, not the

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Bible and tradition, but now your own conscience. What is the conscience?

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Well, the conscience is that faculty that every human being possesses that discerns between right and wrong.

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The human conscience identifies what is right and wrong, what is wrong, and as a result moves the individual to either feel guilty or not guilty about himself.

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It's a part of being a human being. God placed in us our conscience, and so when we feel guilty, it's not simply because we have violated a human standard of our own, but we violate

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God's laws that were written on our hearts from creation. No matter where you go in the world, you can go to a place in the world that's never heard the

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Bible, and there'll be a sense, okay, it's wrong to steal people's conscience.

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You know, be afflicted when they do. But the conscience is not reliable and unchangeable, and therefore, it is no reliable standard of morality.

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The standards of conscience will vary from person to person. And the reason for this is that a person's sin will affect his conscience.

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And other things affect their conscience. How you've grown up, what kind of family you've lived in, what kind of behavior you've practiced in the past.

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I was told recently by someone that conscience is plagued when he has a second peanut butter sandwich. Now, I'm not making fun of him, you know, that's something real to him, but that's probably something that you and I don't share, right?

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Conscience varies from person to person, and I suspect that you feel guilty about some things that wouldn't affect the person sitting next to you.

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Conscience is not an objective standard. We each have a conscience, but it is changeable in its standard.

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How does the sin affect the conscience? Well, the conscience can be defaced or twisted or dulled.

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Through the influence of one's involvement and exposure to sin, a person may sear his conscience to such a degree that his sensitivity to sin is not what it once was.

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And so you can commit a sin that would have shocked you ten years ago, but a year from now it's a matter of habit, and it no longer plagues you, because your conscience has become seared by the practice of sin.

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And so what a person once condemned in himself he now excuses. And some may so deaden their sensitivity to sin that they come to view evil as good and good as evil.

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Who had ever thought that a person like myself could stand up and advocate marriage ought to only be between a man and a woman and experience a kind of vitriol in reaction to that statement?

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But that's where we're at in our society today, isn't it? You're the worst kind of bigot if you advocate something as simple and foundational as that, that everybody agreed to a generation ago.

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And once in a while when somebody challenges me about like that, I'm saying nothing that your grandmother didn't believe in, they're the ones that changed, not us.

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And so sin affects our conscience. How does it affect our conscience?

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Well, first a guilty conscience will result in damaging one's own conception of himself, and how he views the world about him, as you feel guilty.

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And by the way, worldly psychology says that's the heart problem of all humanity, guilt. And so all psychology basically is attempting to alleviate feelings of guilt within a person.

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And depending on what school of psychology you go to, they have different methods and approaches.

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You know, you go to a Freudian psychoanalyst and he said it's your poorly developed concept of your mother.

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I won't go into detail because Freud was a pervert, but you know, they say that's a cause of your guilty feelings.

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And others would advocate, no, it's a societal issue. You know, others will advocate, no, it's because of the practice or the behavior which you've been subjected to.

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Others say, no, it's your genes, you know, it's your mother. Any number of things to place the blame on something other than yourself and a sense of guilt, and to be able to blame somebody else.

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And so basically that's how secular psychology deals with problems. You have this weight of guilt, and it's like a scale.

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And the way they deal with this guilt is that you blame another, and to the degree you're able to blame another, it lessens the sense of guilt.

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It's their fault, not mine. And the problem with that is that you have to go every week for another session to have that blame reinforced.

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Otherwise that guilt begins to weigh, really the whole thing begins to just be an overload and it crushes a person after the course of time.

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And you can pay your $200 an hour to get that kind of counsel each and every week, and people do. It's nonsense.

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And again, human psychology, it's only been around, you know, since about 1900. And, you know, people have had the same kind of problems for many thousands of years and have dealt with these issues in society apart from the ludicrous efforts that are put forth today.

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Of course, the most common way of addressing these matters today is drug it, right? Give you a prescription, that'll fix it.

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No, it just masks issues, doesn't it? And I'm not saying that there aren't some drugs that are very beneficial for people that have needs.

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I'm not saying that. But if you look at the degree of prescriptions and how they are prescribed today compared to what it was a generation ago, it's incredible.

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We're a society of dependence upon mood -altering drugs, even our children.

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Well, a guilty conscience will result in damaging one's own conception of himself and how he views the world about him.

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Secondly, a guilty conscience will result in damage to human relationships. Look at Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned.

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Their relationship was broken, wasn't it? Adam started blaming his wife, the wife blamed the serpent, everybody blamed something else, never took any responsibility.

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A guilty person will be suspicious, even very critical of others in order to justify themselves.

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They may be very permissive and non -condemning of somebody else, or they may be very hypercritical of another.

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Third, a guilty conscience will result in damage to one's relationship with God as well.

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So how do people deal with their guilty conscience? Well, first they justify again their sin by blaming others.

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Secondly, they try to mollify their conscience by redirecting their lives to other matters. They give themselves over in an obsessive way to their work or to their hobby or sports, some activity to take their mind off of what troubles them.

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They seek to soothe their conscience through drugs or alcohol. They seek to ease their guilty conscience by redefining their own and society's standards of morality.

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That's what we're seeing happen on a grand scale. Fifth, they seek to deal with a guilty conscience by gathering others about them who have experienced similar things.

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Carol, a member of my church in Sacramento, knew her for years. A troubled woman, was a hippie back in the 60s.

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She used to walk around on a ledge six stories off on the side of her building, walk along the ledge and drop a tin can down on the sidewalk by a string to get people to give her money.

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She was pretty wild. She had to start going to a psychiatrist. A psychologist, when she was 16, she was so troubled, got into the drugs, of course, became a hippie.

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Later, she was converted, wonderfully so. She became a very humble and godly Christian, but obviously her past had trouble.

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She married himself, had a drug addiction past, and they sought to live for the

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Lord, but they struggled with it. Finally, they had to go to counseling. This was about 20 years after the fact.

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They were into a big room where they were all these strangers to one another, and their families in there.

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They basically were told to express their experience, and it was of a sexual deviancy nature.

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All this perversion and gross immorality is being spilled out upon all the people within this room as though coming to a knowledge of this stuff was going to bring healing.

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To the credit, the husband said, they might send me to jail, but I'm not taking my family back there. Anyway, Carol commented when she went in and sat down, lo and behold, here was her psychiatrist that she had known for 20 years.

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But he was not superintending the group, he was a part of the group. It's twisted.

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And yet that's the world we live in. People deal with their conscience.

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Some will seek to soothe their conscience by doing good deeds. They believe their works of righteousness will offset their acts of sin.

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And then some will use religion, too. That's a powerful motivation for religion.

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Deal with my guilt. So they'll burn candles and incense, chant and recite formulas.

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They'll bathe in rivers, offer sacrifices, cut themselves, punish themselves. These are all done by people who feel guilty about themselves, their conscience.

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We read of the conditions of ancient Israel during the period of the judges. In those days there was no king in Israel.

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Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It could have been said instead, every man lived according to his own conscience.

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That is the kind of society you'll have if everybody followed Pope Francis and the conclusion of that 256 -page document that was published the other day.

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But that's how the world is, isn't it? And it's the same with marriage and family.

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Again, they said from now on it's going to be an individual's conscience that will be the determiner in matters of sexual relationships, family, and other relationships.

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Amazing! We say no. The Word of God has said before us who

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God is and how He has determined marriage to be defined, family to be defined and function, and how we are to relate with one another.

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Amen? And that's going to be our standard regardless of what anybody or the world says. And regardless of what comes.

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So what does the Word of God say? And I want to rehearse these things quickly. First, marriage is a creation ordinance or institution in which

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God joins one man and one woman together in holy relationship which God blesses for their mutual pleasure, well -being, and for the propagation of their children.

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The Book of Common Prayer, which has a lot of good things in it, of the Church of England, has a very good, perhaps familiar, opening statement that is read by one who performs a marriage ceremony.

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Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and this woman in holy matrimony.

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God established the bond and covenant of marriage and creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by His presence and first miracle at a wedding in Galilee.

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He signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and His Church, and the Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people.

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The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy, for the help and comfort given one another, and when it is

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God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord, and therefore marriage is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purpose for which

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God instituted it. That's a good statement. You hear it in some of Jane Austen's movies.

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We may make several authoritative and true statements about the nature of marriage as an institution of God.

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First, marriage is a creation ordinance. This is important. It is not a

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Church sacrament as taught by Rome. Roman Catholicism teaches there are seven sacraments.

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No, there are two, Lord's Supper and Baptism. They declare marriage as one of the seven sacraments.

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Luther rightly came along and said, no, it's not a sacrament of the Church. Non -Christians need to be married too.

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It's a creation ordinance. God established marriage in the garden with Adam and Eve. All people need to be married, and that's absolutely right.

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Second, God has declared in His word that sexual relations between a husband and wife are a blessing from Him.

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Hebrews 13, verse 4a, marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled. God has created and sanctioned the normal relations between husband and wife.

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Their physical relations with one another are normal, healthy, and righteous before God. Not to be a cause of guilt or shame.

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Third, God has declared that He will judge all those who commit sexual relations outside of marriage, outside of the marriage that He has sanctioned.

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You cannot watch a TV show, a movie now, that doesn't culminate in bed, right?

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As though that's the supreme expression of love, and it is something to be done and celebrated.

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No, God says He's going to judge any and all who have sexual relations outside the sanctity of a marriage that He has established.

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God only sanctions relations within marriage relationship in which He has bound husband and wife together.

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We believe this. Hebrews 13, verse 4 reads in its entirety, marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled.

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Fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Cut it in stone, they will be judged by Christ on that day.

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Fornication is a broad term, referring to any and all sexual sin, it's a Greek word from which we get pornea, the

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Greek word is pornea, porn. Adultery of course is a sexual violation of the marriage covenant.

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Fornication includes all sexual relations outside of a legitimate marriage relationship, and adultery is also a form of fornication.

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But adultery is a violation of marital fidelity with someone other than one spouse. And again,

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God has declared that all sexual relations outside of marriage will bring His condemnation in this life and also on the day of judgment.

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Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? No, they're not going to heaven. Do not be deceived, and the world is deceived.

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Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, that's the scary one, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

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But thankfully, such were some of you. You know, they're sinners, they need salvation.

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Such were some of you. He's talking to the church at Corinth, but you were washed, so you're no longer that way.

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You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our

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God. And I imagine if we, you know, gathered around in a circle in a room, we could tell some horror stories about ourselves, huh?

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Just what we've experienced, but we were that way, we're no longer. We've been delivered from that, thankfully, through our

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Lord. And we welcome and we tell all sinners who may be classified as these things, there is a way of escape through Christ, isn't there?

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A second point, God has established permanence of the one man and one woman in holy matrimony. The Lord Jesus was challenged one day about the matter of divorce.

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In his answer to them, he called upon the original state of Adam and Eve as a paradigm for God's will respecting marriage.

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And so Matthew 19, the Pharisees came to Jesus, testing him, saying to him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?

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Of course, Jesus said, no. He answered, 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 said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, the two shall become one flesh.

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So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate.

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No divorce. And so God has decreed a moral law that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in marriage relationship, and God has determined that marriage relationship will last and not be dissolved until death.

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Now divorce happens, but God hates divorce. He makes provision for divorce, as we'll see, but he hates it.

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He divorced Israel, didn't he? But he hated doing so. And so third,

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God has permitted divorce when one spouse has been unfaithful to his or her marriage partner, and that's the one basis for legitimate divorce in God's sight.

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Now down through biblical history, there's been different grounds for divorce. Under the Old Testament economy,

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God permitted divorce if a man would give his wife a formal writing declaring that he was divorcing her. Our Lord made reference to this,

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Matthew 19, the Pharisees said to him, why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce 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 wife, but from the beginning it was not so.

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One man, one woman for life is God's standard. Actually, the law of Moses that required a writing of divorcement to be drafted and formalized was an act of mercy upon the vulnerable wife.

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Prior to that, apparently all he has said, hey, I don't want you anymore, I divorce you. A word, and that was it.

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And the law of Moses made it a, you know, there had to be a procedure involved.

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And there were consequences, once you made it, you couldn't go back on certain things. And it was largely a protection for the vulnerable wife.

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It was common, you know, the husband says, I don't want you anymore. She had to go out with the clothes on her back. That's why the ancient women,

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I understand, would wear all their jewelry they owned on their clothing and whatnot, because if they were sent out, they took it with them.

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There was uncertainty on the part of these poor women. Fourthly, God has not permitted remarriage after a prior divorce, except for one exception.

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The Lord Jesus declared, if one marries a divorced person, he commits adultery in doing so. Mark 10, 11 and 12,

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Jesus said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. Why?

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Because God still regards that first marriage as the bona fide one. That's what he's saying.

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And if a woman divorces her husband, marries another, she commits adultery. There's a lot of people that are in married relationships that are committing adultery in the sight of God.

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That's a hard one. And by the way, obviously, you know,

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I'm not throwing stones here, but sooner or later something's going to hit one of us, right? But again, that shouldn't cause us to despair or feel guilty.

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Thank God for Jesus Christ. Amen. That there's, you know, we start over.

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He wipes the slate clean, and we're forgiven of our sins, and he gives us new life in Christ.

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Such were some of you. And so, the worst thing you can do is try and deny it or explain it away or reject it.

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No, you own up to it. That's got me, you know, that's me. I own up to it.

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I acknowledge it, Lord. Forgive me for Christ's sake, and now help me, you know, to live so as to do what

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I can to testify of your goodness and grace and what is right and true in the way marriage ought to be.

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Some of the most strongly verbal Christians I've known in the past about marriage and divorce and remarriage are ones that underwent divorce and remarriage and then came to understand a biblical understanding, and they were advocates of it.

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I got a Christmas card from a dear friend, one of my closest friends in life, Mickey, and I sent a card back, but from the time he wrote that Christmas card, at the end of November, he died.

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So I got a card back from Gina. Mickey was a member of my church.

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He was a singer, a highway patrolman. He was my hunting and fishing buddy, too. We were good friends. But he divorced his wife,

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Michael, and Michael was a member of the church. And then he began to live with Gina in adultery, and he had a lot of friends,

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Christian friends, a lot of pastor friends. Everybody told him he was justified in what he was doing, and I was the only one who told him, no, you're not.

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It's wrong. And so I lost my friendship for a handful of years, and I remember

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Gina coming over to my church, because she grew up in a Baptist church, and she loved Mickey, of course.

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And she came over to see me. She said, why are you so bent on making my life unhappy?

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Because Mickey felt guilty, and he was kind of not giving himself wholly over to her because of, apparently, my influence.

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I think probably the Holy Spirit convicting him, frankly, was the real influence. Years later,

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Gina was sitting on the couch, and of all things, was watching a Jimmy Swaggart show, and got converted.

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And it wasn't long before Mickey and Gina came over. They sat on the couch, and Mickey acknowledged to me,

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I was wrong. I should have never divorced my wife, Michael. And Gina's sitting there, nodding her head.

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That's right. You know, we sin. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't. He commended me for being the only one that was telling him the truth, and then they, of course, resolved to live for Christ.

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And they'd been together for 35 years, until he died a few months ago. So the

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Lord restores souls, even when we really blunder and depart from the Lord.

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But we have to stay true. But God has permitted remarriage, after prior divorce, with one exception.

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And we have that in Matthew 19, of course, where the Lord said, They are no longer two but one flesh, therefore what

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God has joined them. They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away?

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He said, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

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And I say to you, and so this is the Son of God, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for, and there's the clause, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery, and whoever marries her, who is divorced, commits adultery, the one exception is when that marriage has been dissolved by unfaithfulness of the spouse.

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God reviews a remarriage as legitimate when it follows a divorce that had resulted from the unfaithfulness of the spouse in the first marriage.

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If someone comes to me and they're divorced, and yet I see that there is a way that they can be reconciled to the former spouse,

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I'll work toward that end. Unless that former spouse has entered into another relationship on an ongoing basis or marriage, then that's another matter.

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Now many teach there is a second cause of divorce in which God allows remarriage, the case of abandonment.

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And even our notes in our studied Bibles, reformed studied Bibles, reflect this. It's based on 1

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Corinthians 17 which reads, If the unbeliever departs, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, and for God has called us to peace.

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And so it's interpreted, well this means that the spouse who has been abandoned is not under bondage, in other words, no longer tied to that marriage and therefore is free to remarry.

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I would take issue, however, with this interpretation for two reasons. First, Paul was not instructing the abandoned spouse about the matter of remarriage.

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Rather, Paul was basically saying, you're not bound to try and cling to this marriage. Let him go.

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You're at peace. You don't have to feel guilty if you're a Christian and your non -Christian spouse,

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I'm not having this, and walked away. And there's people here in this place right now that's happened to.

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You don't have to feel guilty about it. If he departs, let him depart.

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But a second reason that this passage does not legitimize remarriage in the case of abandonment is that it would provide for an additional exception for remarriage that our

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Lord clearly declared there was only one exception. Jesus said, except for one reason, fornication.

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And now they're coming along and saying, no, here's another exception. That's conflicting with the

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Lord Jesus, what He said. When you make two, He said there's one.

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There's a good summary of the biblical teaching on marriage and divorce. It's a theological note in the Reformation Study Bible.

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And so let me just rehearse that and then we'll have to close. We didn't even get to verse 18. But I think it's important to lay this foundation.

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You can't assume anything anymore. Marriage is an exclusive relationship in which a man and a woman commit themselves to each other in covenant for life on the basis of this solemn vow to become one flesh.

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The Westminster Confession, an article with a legitimate issue, and of the

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Church with an holy seed and for preventing uncleanness, that is sexual license and immorality.

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God's ideal for marriage is that the man and woman should complete each other and share in the creative work of making new people.

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Marriage is for Christians and non -Christians, but it's God's will that His people should marry only fellow believers.

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Amen. Intimacy in its deepest dimension is impossible when partners are not united in faith.

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Paul uses Christ's relationship to his church to explain what Christian marriage is so as to highlight the husband's special responsibility as the wife's leader and protector and the wife's calling to accept her husband in that role.

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The distinction of roles does not imply that the wife is an inferior person. As God's image bearers, both man and wife have equal dignity and value.

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They must fulfill their roles with a mutual respect grounded in the recognition of this fact.

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God hates divorce, and yet He provided a procedure for it that would protect the divorced wife.

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This provision was made because of the hardness of your hearts. The most natural understanding of Jesus' teaching is that adultery, the sin of marital unfaithfulness, destroys the marriage covenant and warrants divorce, though reconciliation would be preferable, and certainly

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I work toward that when there is an unfaithful spouse, and that he who divorces his wife for any lesser reason becomes guilty of adultery when he remarries and drives the woman into adultery if she remarries.

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The principle is that all cases of divorce and remarriage involve a disruption of God's ideal for the sexual relationship.

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When asked when divorce is lawful, Jesus replied that divorce is always deplorable, but He did not deny that hearts continue to be hard though an evil may sometimes be permitted.

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Paul says that a Christian who is deserted by an unbelieving partner is not under bondage.

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This evidently means that the Christian may regard the relationship as finished. Whether this confers the right of remarriage has been disputed, as I already indicated, and Reformed opinion has long been divided on the matter.

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The Westminster Confession states with cautious wisdom what Reformed Christians, reflecting on the scriptures noted above, have down through the centuries found themselves agreed on regarding divorce.

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In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce to marry another as if the offending party were dead.

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Although the corruption of man be such as it apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom

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God had joined together in marriage, yet nothing but adultery or such willful desertion,

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I would excise that, as can in no way be remedied by the church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the law.

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Wherein a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed, and the person concerned in it not left to their own wills and discretion in their own case.

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Everything we've said today mitigates against that whole idea that your conscience is sufficient in and of itself to make determinations as to what's right and wrong regarding sexual relations, marriage, and family.

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That is nonsense, and you're going to end up with disorder, injustice, violence, just like the period of the judges.

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When there was no king in Israel, we need a king. We need to prescribe for us what we're to think and how we're to live, and then we need the blessed

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Holy Spirit to enable us to do so. And there is peace and joy and righteousness for those that do.

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Amen? Very simple, very plain. But in today's world, it'll get a rise.

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Let's pray. Father, help us, we pray, to be clear on these matters, and yet compassionate,

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Lord. We desire the forgiveness of sin and new life in Christ.

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And we're a ravaged people, Lord, sinners who need mercy and grace from you through Christ.

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And we thank you, our Father, that you have bread for the hungry, bread enough in despair for any and all who are tired of their sin and recognize the folly and the futility of living in it, and certainly the foolishness of attempting to justify it.

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Help us, our Lord, each and every one of us, to come to Christ as sinners, as beggars, asking for mercy and receiving the free grace that you give in Him.

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For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.