Divorce and Remarriage

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is

Mike Abendroth and it is a spring day here in New England and one of my favorite things about New England is the spring nights where it's very clear outside, crisp, the mosquitoes aren't out yet, and you hear the peepers.

And we live over by a little pond and you can just hear those things. Do peepers peep?

Do they croak? What do they actually do? It's a cool sound when it's a starry night and I don't know, that's one of my favorite things

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We live in a day and age that could be characterized by lots of different things. But one of those characteristics would be unfaithfulness.

It seems like this is one of the great sins of our day. Unfaithfulness. People don't keep their word.

They are disloyal. They don't adhere to promises. They don't keep obligations.

Any allegiance that they might have crumbles in the face of any pressure. And you can see unfaithfulness, can't you?

In all different areas, all kinds of areas. So, for instance, in the sports world, cheating scandals, doping scandals from Lance Armstrong to Ben Johnson to Jose Canseco.

Unfaithfulness is prevalent. It wasn't that long ago or maybe it didn't seem like 1994 to me.

Remember Tonya Harding's ex -husband? I have to get this straight.

Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Sean Eckert. They hired Shane Stant to break

Nancy Kerrigan's leg. That was hard. Let's try that again. Tonya Harding's ex -boyfriend

Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Sean Eckert hired Shane Stant to break Nancy Kerrigan's leg. I saw it at the gym.

They had a flashback. They were talking to Nancy Kerrigan. I think she was into boxing for a while too, wasn't she?

There is unfaithfulness in the educational world. Just this week in the live week, not

NoCo time frame week, you had some Atlanta teachers. They were convicted of the cheating scandal in Georgia and received jail time for conspiring to cheat on state tests to earn raises and bonuses.

Some took plea deals. 70 % of high school students have admitted to cheating.

That's serious cheating. The text says here 60 % say they plagiarized papers.

I guess now you can just plagiarize like mad. You just go online. In the business world, you can see unfaithfulness, can't you?

Is a man or a woman's word his or her bond anymore?

That's probably pretty rare. I'm sure there are exceptions. You have insider trading, overbilling, cooking the books for the shareholders.

You have the Birdie Madoffs and the former Goldman Sachs director,

Rajat Gupta, guilty of insider trading. And you have, of course, unfaithfulness in the church realm and the ecclesiastical realm.

There have been many who have said they want to preach the word. They are committed to do it and they don't.

And there are other examples. Infidelity, et cetera.

And I think it'd probably be fair to say that there's a new value system. And here's the new value system.

Instead of comparing ourselves to a fixed standard, that is to say, the word of God, God's law,

God's, if you want the Ten Commandments, fine. If as a reflection of the moral character of God and nature, or if you want some

New Testament examples, I won't banter back and forth about some people's overemphasis of the law ontologically and some people's overemphasis of the law administratively.

See, isn't that fun? That's just kind of fun to say. But our new value system forgets the word of God.

I think we could all agree upon that, upon that, agree on that. But we now compare ourselves to one another.

Find somebody who's worse, and then you are going to feel better. It's bell curvage is what it is.

And there are areas of unfaithfulness in the social realm.

Arthur Pink said, in the social world, marital infidelity abounds on every hand, the sacred bonds of wedlock being broken with as little regard as the discarding of an old garment.

And so today on No Compromise Radio, I'd like to talk about fidelity, faithfulness in marriage.

It's an ever existing problem. Marriage has always been under attack because it clearly pictures the love that Jesus had for his church.

And it's being attacked from the without and from within. And if you go to the

Bible, isn't it fascinating? Isn't it wonderful? When you pick up your Bible and you think that God is always relevant,

God is always in, God is never outdated. God had never has a buy, buy,

B -U -B -Y date, you know, purchased by such and such a time before it doesn't, it's not a good anymore.

I mean, in the old days, didn't we have expiration dates on things? I think we still do like milk and stuff like that.

I try to say correctly. I didn't say milk. I said milk, et cetera. So sometimes it just says best if you use buy.

I like to have oatmeal every morning and I put some blueberries in the oatmeal and some cinnamon, a little bit of stevia, some salt.

I want butter, but I don't do it. I want cream, but I don't do it. And what else do

I put in there? Like a handful of small nuts. And so I found an old thing of pecans, crushed pecans in my little stash.

I have my little stash where I keep certain things because otherwise the kids will grab them.

And I think the nut said best used by, and it was like three years ago. I just figured, you know what?

I must be getting old. It reminds me of my grandma or grandpa. They would, you know, they, they, they could eat things that were like weeks old and nothing would ever happen.

You know, they'd have a sandwich. It would last them five days. So coming up on 55 years old here, no compromise radio.

I, I typically feel younger until someone speaks and I can't hear them or I try to see something and I can't see.

So that's that. When you go to the book of Malachi written long, long ago, you know, 2 ,500 years ago.

Plus it's fascinating to think that God is, is relevant. What he says is true.

On the flip side, sadly, because of the fall, humanity, humans, men and women are the same back then struggle with the same issues as we do today.

Because sin affects them and their word and their bond and sin affects us too.

And so as I've been preaching through Malachi, I just thought to myself, you know, most people know Malachi because they get whacked over the head with it for tithing.

And so don't rob God and Malachi three. And I'll talk about that coming up soon. It has nothing to do with a

New Testament church today in robbing God. But Malachi in chapter two talks about two issues of marital faithfulness and the issues are people that divorce unbiblically and then people that marry unbelievers.

And so doesn't that seem like it's an apropos subject for today? I think it is where people will marry unbelievers.

So Christians marrying unbelievers and Christians divorcing unbiblically.

And what happens in this brew of infidelity?

It is fomented. I know that's a word.

Is that the right word? Remember the old comedians? I always mixed up Bill Cosby and Norm Crosby.

I always thought it was Bill Crosby. It's a mixture of Fat Albert using the wrong words on purpose.

So are making up words. You've got feminist and you've got the gay marriage agenda that isn't helping.

I guess that's what I wanted to say. Marriage vows. Could there be anything more important than the marriage vow apart from your commitment to the

Lord Jesus Christ, your exercise of saving faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus, knowing you have a debt to pay for your sins and Jesus paid that debt in full and it was raised from the dead?

Could there be a more important commitment? I don't think in all the world. Think about it. What's a more important covenant commitment?

An official commitment could be more serious than standing before,

I guess, a judge, justice of the peace, rabbi, or in our particular case, a pastor, some member of the clergy.

I like it when I used to fill out the officiant's copy of a wedding ceremony and it said, what's your position?

And I would always say, minister of the gospel. That's what I do. I serve the gospel.

I'm under the gospel and I serve good news to people. So you could probably go to all kinds of research data where people aren't keeping their words in marriage.

And Malachi, of course, is dealing with Israel back in the day.

But the same things apply. We have people today who will lower the standards of what they think a

Christian is to try to somehow make believe that the person's a Christian so then they can marry them because they have enough sense to realize they're not supposed to be unequally yoked, 2

Corinthians 6, verse 14, which is not primarily about that, marrying an unbeliever.

But certainly there's a principle that can be extracted from that after we deal with the text. And so what do we do?

Well, yes, that person's a Christian. They've made a profession. They've proclaimed something.

I mean, I'll look at myself, for instance. I was baptized as a child.

I was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. I have some communion confirmation papers here with all kinds of tests and classes, probably a year worth of classes to understand what the

Lutherans taught in the, I think, LCA, ELA, ELCA today,

I think is what it is. It wasn't back then. And I went on mission trips to Galeana, Mexico.

I went to backpacking trips with Christians. I go to Christian retreats. By the way, it's a fascinating one.

The first time I went on a Christian retreat with a bunch of high school students, I was shy.

I was, I don't know, very self -conscious. I didn't like to talk in front of people.

I hated any kind of public speaking or kind of sharing my feelings or, and you think

I might be kidding, but I'm not kidding. And so I remember people going around.

We were singing Keith Green songs, if I remember rightly, and I'd never really done that before.

And then people were sharing testimonies, you know, how good the Lord was in their life, how God saved them.

And I think I was there just because A, my mom made me go. Now that's a good thing for moms to do.

And B, I thought, well, maybe there's some, you know, pretty girls here or something like that, but I was too shy to talk to them.

So that didn't matter either. But I remember going around the room, people giving testimonies. I had no idea what to say.

I mean, what was my testimony? Well, yes, I believe in God and Jesus is the only way. I've been baptized.

And so what's the buzz? What's the deal? So anyway, back on point.

My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You could do me a favor. You can tell your friends about No Compromise Radio.

Remember, we have a video channel as well. There are blog posts on our website. Brand new website, by the way.

I mean, Jonathan and Joshua, stellar job on the new website.

Very thankful for that. And you can always write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

You can write Steve, too. I think it's Tuesdayguy at nocompromiseradio .com. So divorce, remarriage found right there in the book of Malachi.

Now, before I read some of the verses in Malachi, I talk about this subject a little bit more. And this is all kind of an introduction. Here's what's going on in Malachi chapter 2, verses 10 through 16.

The faithfulness of God is the backdrop to the unfaithfulness of Israel manifested in two main problems.

Marrying unbelievers. Israel marrying pagans. So the principle applies today.

And divorcing unbiblically. And there's probably some truth to the fact that those were related.

So you divorce your wife so you can marry a pagan. So there's probably some interchange going on there.

But I want you to remember the backdrop of unfaithfulness to one another should be seen in light of God's faithfulness and his faithful character.

Because here's a good principle to learn on No Compromise Radio. Vertical sins against God.

Horizontal sins against other people are related. And so when you sin against other people, you're sinning against God.

That's how they're related. Love God. Love your neighbor. If those two great commandments could be pulled apart a little bit and looked at and analyzed, you'll see that there's a commonality between the two.

When we sin against other people, all right, let's use David as an illustration. He sins against Bathsheba.

He knows ultimately he's sinning against God. And so God is not pleased with sin against others because it shows what they think of him.

Now, when you've got unfaithfulness in our society and faithfulness in people's lives, you need to see that as underneath the umbrella or against the backdrop of the faithfulness of God.

God is so faithful. So when God says, be holy for I'm holy, and you can look at Leviticus or 1

Peter 1. Well, he could say, be faithful because I'm faithful.

And certainly, when you see God, let me just give you a few verses in the Old Testament and the

New. Now, therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is

God, the faithful God, Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 32, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are just, a

God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright as he. Psalm 36,

NAS 77. Thy loving kindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens.

Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies. Isaiah 11, 5.

Also, righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness, the belt about his waist.

Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. First Thessalonians, moving into the

New Testament. Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass.

Second Thessalonians, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Hebrews chapter 10. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

And then the final passage, before we get into the Malachi issue, Revelation chapter 19, speaking of Jesus Christ.

And I saw heaven opened and behold a rainbow horse. Oh, sorry, that was the

Burpo version. Excuse me. A white horse. And he, that is Jesus Christ, who sat upon it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and wages war. What a title for the

Lord Jesus. He's called faithful, capital F here in the, I think it's, what do

I have in front of me? ESV? He's called faithful and true. Can you imagine?

Absolutely trustworthy. He is always faithful.

Present tense. God doesn't act outside of his character. He's always faithful and he's always immutable.

So that means he's always faithful. He never changes to quote Arthur Pink.

He never forgets. He never fails. He never falters. He never forfeits his word to every declaration of promise or prophecy.

The Lord has exactly adhered every engagement or covenant or threatening he will make good attributes of God, page 52.

And so whether it's Hebrew or whether it's Greek, this idea of faithful and faithfulness, you can lean upon him.

It's the idea of a support or a prop or a stay. Yahweh is reliable.

There's a stability about him. There's a consistency about him.

He is not a liar. He does not give falsehoods. He can be relied upon.

And so with Malachi, in a very direct way, in a confrontational way, in a thus sayeth the

Lord way, 20 times in 55 verses in the book of Malachi, thus says the

Lord, our says the Lord, Malachi, dealing with people who act religious, who are doing the external things of religiosity, but internally their hearts are far from the

Lord. And that shows itself, doesn't it? They're fruits to that. And the fruits that Malachi in chapter 2, verse 10 to 16 talk about, you say, well,

I'm going to marry unbelievers and I divorce my spouse, unbiblical divorce.

And so there's this wake up call that Malachi gives. Have we not all one father?

Has not God created us, one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has been faithless and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.

For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign

God. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the

Lord of hosts. And the second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because you're no longer, he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

But you say, why does he not? Answer, because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you've been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one

God seeking godly offspring? So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

For the man who does not love his wife, but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel covers his garment with violence, says the

Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless.

Isn't that amazing to look at the word of God? We often forget books like Malachi. Maybe they're just too intense.

There's too much of a burden on Malachi's heart. And so we want a little pick me up. We want a song of joy or we're not really wanting a prophetic word like this.

Maybe it's just too convicting when we think about areas of our lives where we're not faithful, where we are faithless and probably lots of reasons.

But I love it that it's so relevant. It's contemporary. It is in, it is ongoing.

It is something that is profitable for us. That is to say, Malachi fits perfectly in light of 2nd

Timothy, chapter three, all scriptures God breathed. And if it's coming from God, it must be important.

And so we're going to talk in the next couple of times. Maybe it's on WVNE. Maybe it'll just be on podcast.

What about marrying unbelievers? And what about a divorce for the

Christian? You can write me at info at NoCompromiseRadio .com. You have the new website,

NoCompromiseRadio .com. You can go there, YouTube channel, Twitter account, WVNE, iTunes, lots of those.

Thanks again for listening all these years on WVNE. We'll see you electronically through the media, through the downloads, through your iBuds.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.