Divorce and Remarriage - What does Jesus say? part 2

Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back with me to the Gospel of Matthew. But like I said earlier in our scripture reading, I want us to be in Matthew chapter 19. Of course, we are going through the Sermon on the Mount and our normal place, our rightful place where we should be is Matthew 5 verse 31 and 32. But like I said earlier in Matthew 19, Jesus is expounding on what he has taught in Matthew 5 and that is necessary. And I think that you will see that. So I'm not trying to trick anybody. I want us to be together.

I want us to have our Bibles open to Matthew chapter 19 and we will come back to that and work our way through a few verses here in just a few minutes. Now last Sunday we started the third lesson in this series. There are six lessons here starting in verse 21 going on down to the end of chapter 5. And in this third lesson, Jesus is dealing with a lot. He's dealing with marriage. He's dealing with divorce. He's dealing with remarriage after divorce. And we see that in Matthew 5 verse 31. Jesus mentions those subjects. Also Jesus is dealing with sexual immorality.

The King James would say fornication and adultery and how they are connected with divorce and with remarriage. We see that in Matthew 5 verse 32. Jesus deals with those subjects in verse 32. Now last week I said that we're dealing with a very big subject and this subject has lots of consequences, lots of ramifications. And I know I keep using language like this so pardon me for being repetitive. But Jesus is really blasting their religion here. Specifically he is blasting how their religion dealt with divorce and remarriage. Even more because their divorces and their remarriages led to more sin.

To me being that there are only two verses in chapter 5 can really make us miss how big this is. That is why we will have more than two messages in examining these verses. We go back to our first lesson. That first lesson on anger and murder. We took two messages to cover that lesson and I think that was thorough. We went on to the second lesson that was on adultery and lust. And we took two messages to cover that lesson as well. But there's just so much here, this is so big so we're going to take our time. Now there are two things I want to share with you, kind of pastoral thoughts, pastoral instructions.

I want to share these with you before we continue. First you really need to get all of these messages. You need to get all of the messages to get the full meaning of the lesson of the message. Don't cheat yourself. Listen to them all. Really all of them come together to really give us one message. And those messages are available on our church website. And then second, I will make most of my application at the end. Although I am making application along the way in each message, I will make the most important application towards the end of these messages.

And this application will enable us to see what our personal position should be according to God's Word on these subjects. And then also what our church position should be. Now I want to remind you of our approach. My approach will be Jesus, his approach. In Matthew 19 verses 1-12, Jesus, he adds to his teaching back in Matthew 5 verse 31 and 32. I've already said that. First he started with their accepted practice of the day. We saw that in Matthew 5 verse 31. And then he went back to God's standard, which is found back in Genesis with the first marriage. That would be Adam and that would be Eve.

And that's what he is doing here in Matthew 19. And then third, Jesus comes back to the Jews in their day and he makes application. Really and truly Jesus covers a lot of ground. If you paid attention to that, he covers a lot of ground. Now last week we started with some personal examination, just like Jesus did. We examined the fact that we have all been affected by this nasty thing called divorce. When we look into our immediate families, chances are we see divorce. Especially if we broaden that to our spouse's families as well. Now what is my point? We have all been personally affected by divorce in some way or another.

And you know some of you have been affected very personally. Some of you have been victims and you know from experience what divorce can do. Now also we see divorce in the life of the church. Many people in church have been divorced. Many leaders in the church. They debate what the church's position and the Christian's position should be on this subject. Really this is a hotly debated subject. Now why do I bring this up? We must see that divorce is a problem in our day and we must take Jesus' approach in dealing with the matter. Remember the Bible commentator William Barclay helped us here with our approach.

He said that Jesus was a practical reformer. I like that. He was speaking to bring God's people. Jesus was working to bring God's people back to what God's Word said about these subjects. Marriage and divorce and remarriage and everything associated with that. And we must do the very same thing. We must come back to God's Word and we must be practical reformers using the authority of God's Word in that work. We then saw how Jesus dealt with divorce and remarriage in his day. His day. And his day meaning the Jews and the Jewish religion.

For generations the Jews had really made two giant mistakes which were very tragic and led to some horrible consequences. First they moved away from God's original intention for marriage. And then second they misinterpreted what God's Word said about divorce. They had adapted a broad-minded, a very liberal interpretation of the Scriptures which meant that they had reduced the Scriptures down down below its original meaning. See in Jesus' day the Jewish leaders taught that if a Jewish man found any offense in his wife he could provide her with a certificate of divorce and it was done.

And listen, they used the Scriptures to justify their practice. Simply the Jews were light years away from God's original intention for marriage and they were light years away from what the Old Testament Scriptures taught on divorce. And it is sad. They were just like the world when it came to divorce. And that was all covered over with their religion. Now this sets the stage. We understand what things were like in Jesus' day. I've already talked about how things are like in our day, what they're like in our day. And so this helps us be able to move forward in studying this subject.

Now I want to show you where we're going, how we're going to progress. We're going to follow Jesus' pattern in Matthew 19. This is our template. So just have your Bible open to Matthew 19. We're going to look at a few verses here. But really we're going to go into a lot of places in the Old Testament. And as I say often, if I'm reading other verses or referencing other verses, you write those down, put those in your notes and make that a part of your personal study. Because God's taught us here. We need to be faithful students to what He gives us here on a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, a Wednesday night.

And we need to attain and retain everything that God wants to teach us. So let's start first. I want us to notice what Jesus is doing here in Matthew 19 verse 4. Notice what Jesus is doing right here in Matthew 19 verse 4. Look at the scripture. He answered them. Remember they're trying to trap Him about this subject of divorce. Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning male and female? Now here Jesus was reminding the Jews. He was reminding the Jews in that crowd that it was God who created that first man and that first woman. Here Jesus is going all the way back to the book of Genesis, back to the creation account.

This was after the heavens and the earth were completed there at the beginning of Genesis 2, but this was all before the fallen man in Genesis chapter 3. Now everything that Jesus was referring to, referring to with the Jews here, they would have known. They knew the creation account. They really knew it by heart. But notice what Jesus is reminding them of here. Some very good specifics. It was God who created that first man. We know who He was. That was Adam. Genesis 2, 7 says that God Himself formed man from the dust of the ground, but then God did something unique in all of the creation.

God breathed the breath of life into that man and the scripture says He became a living being. This was not simply animal life like all of the other living creatures that God had created. Adam received spiritual life. He received soul life. Adam was able to think and to reason and to talk as a unique creation of God. Because Adam had spiritual life, he was able to relate to God in a unique way. No other creature related to God in such a way. So Jesus was reminding the Jews here that it was God who created the first man. He was reminding them that it was God who gave Adam a home.

In Genesis 2, 8 it says that God created a garden in the east and it was called Eden. There God placed the man that He had created and He provided everything in the garden that man would need. Verse 9 says that God gave him food. Verse 10 says that God gave the man water. And this was the perfect home for Adam. Not because of its beauty, not even because of its perfection in the creation. It was the garden that God fellowshiped with God. It was there in the garden that God fellowshiped with God. God fellowshiped with man, those He had created in His own image. Eden, the garden of Eden, it was the place for man and God because God was there.

It was the perfect home for Adam. So Jesus was reminding the Jews that it was God that gave Adam a home. And then it was God who gave Adam responsibility. Genesis 2, 15 says that God put Adam there in the garden to keep it and to cultivate it. That means to work it. This was God-like responsibility for when Adam was working in the garden, he was being like God. When Adam was exercising his responsibility, he was representing the very image of God on earth. So Jesus was reminding the Jews here that God gave Adam responsibility. And then it was God who gave Adam a command.

Genesis 2, 16 and 17 says that God told Adam that he could eat from any tree in the garden except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was a clear command. So much so that God told Adam that if he did eat of that tree, he would definitely, most definitely die. So Jesus was reminding the Jews that God gave Adam a command. But we have a problem. Adam had a problem. Adam was perfect in every way. God had created him perfect in every way. He had a home, a home that was perfect in every way, most importantly because God met with man there in that home in the garden. But Genesis 2, 18 says that man was alone.

Back in verse 20, it says that Adam named all of the creatures, but within the creation he found no one that was suitable for him. That meant that no creature was found that corresponded to him, that was like him. He was the only human being. He was alone. But God continued in the creation. It was God who then created the first woman. We see in verses 21 and 22, it says that God put Adam to sleep and he took a rib from Adam. I thought about it like this. This is the first surgery, is it not? God opened up Adam's side and took a rib and from that rib God formed woman. In Adam's response we see what God did.

The word woman speaks of what God did. He, that's God, created her. That's the first woman, from him that was Adam. Adam was her source. She was created from Adam. So Jesus was reminding the Jews that God created the first woman. And it was God who presented the woman to Adam. Verse 22 says that God brought her to man. She was presented to Adam. Not given at this point, presented. There is a difference. That comes next. So Jesus was reminding the Jews that it was God who presented the woman to Adam, the first man. Now take a step back with me. Sometimes I ask us to do this.

In my mind I want us to take a few steps back from what we've looked at and notice what Jesus is doing here in Matthew 19 verse 4. Go back and read the verse. He answered them, "Have you not read," talking about Genesis, "that he," that's God, "who created them from the beginning, made them male," that's Adam, "and female," that's Eve. Jesus was reminding these Jews that it was God who created man and created woman. It was God himself who created that first couple. This was at the very heart of the creation account and these Jews knew that. Now question, what was the point here? The Jews knew this story. They knew the Bible verses.

What is Jesus aiming to do? Jesus was reminding them that mankind came from God. More specifically, they came from God. Mankind is responsible to his maker and specifically these Jews were responsible to the God that had created them. Just like Adam was responsible to God in his commandments, these Jews were responsible to God and his commandments. And this isn't just a history lesson. Jesus is getting more personal. He's getting very real. Jesus was hitting them in the face with the fact that man was created by God and for God and these Jewish leaders needed to be reminded of that fact.

They had acted as their own God's little G and they did as they wished in the area of divorce and remarriage and everything associated with those subjects. And because they had, they were in grievous, grievous sin against God. Far more sin than maybe you know. Now an application asks us a question. Does this describe man today? I mean think about what we have seen here. Jesus was reminding the Jews that it was God that created man. And does this describe man today? Is mankind disconnected from that reality and that truth and has man overlooked the fact that it was God that created man and has created every man since? Let's continue.

Notice what Jesus is doing in verse five. In verse five, back in Matthew 19, he goes on and said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." And here Jesus was reminding the Jews there in the crowd that it was God that joined or married that first man and that first woman in marriage. Now earlier I said that woman was presented to the man but not given. We see that in Genesis 2, 21 to 23. But it was just after that that woman was given to the man. This would be marriage. See presented as one thing given is another.

And Jesus is reminding the Jews of this fact in Matthew 19 verse five. Again the Jews knew this part of the creation account as well. They knew how woman was formed from man. They knew that it was God who gave the woman to the man. But notice what Jesus is reminding them of. See one miraculous truth. Genesis 2, 24, the two shall become one. You see one man plus one woman equals one flesh. Go back to the verse, verse five. And he said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast or cleave to his wife and the two shall become one." This is a miracle. Miraculously the two shall become one.

This speaks of their bodies, yes, of their souls, yes, and of their spirits. They had become one miraculously, mysteriously in every way. Again, some translations use this word cleave. And the word cleave in Genesis 2, 24 is a very, very strong word which speaks to a bonding of two objects together. This speaks of gluing or cementing things so much so that the two objects become one. Now take a step back with me here. Notice what Jesus is doing here in Matthew 19, 5. Jesus was reminding these Jews that it was God who performed that first marriage. God himself joined that first man, Adam, and that first woman, Eve, in marriage.

The two becoming one flesh in a unique physical and spiritual bond which even affects the soul of the two. Now question, what's the point here? Of course the Jews, they knew everything that Jesus was saying, so what is Jesus doing here? Jesus was reminding them that marriage was God's plan and not man's plan. He, that's Jesus, he was reminding them that if God created marriage, then man has no right to tamper with that union. Jesus was also reminding them that in reality every marriage union that is ever established was established by God himself.

He was reminding the Jews of this standard which the first man and the first woman, they were responsible to keep. And it was the standard, a standard they were responsible to keep as well, the Jews in that day. Again, this wasn't just a Bible lesson for the Jews. This isn't just rehashing ancient history. Jesus was getting really personal because they had long drifted away from these truths. The Jews had long since moved away from the permanence of marriage. To them marriage was something of convenience or inconvenience. Now an application, does this not describe men today? Does this not describe people today?

Remember Jesus was reminding the Jews that it was God that joined the first man and the first woman in marriage and yet the Jews had moved away from that. It become a convenience or an inconvenience and I think that describes mankind today far more than we might know. And then third, notice what Jesus is doing in verse 6. Again Matthew 19, we're just progressing along, are we not? Look at verse 6. He had asked him a question in verse 5 and now he answers the question, "So they are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let no man, let not man, separate." So here in verse 6 Jesus was reminding the Jews that God's marriage union was a permanent marriage union. Jesus was calling these Jews to see that for a man to destroy a marriage was to destroy something that God had created. Again notice what Jesus is saying in verse 6. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. Jesus was clearly emphatically declaring that all marriages were in reality performed by God and should never ever ever be destroyed. But we see in Genesis 3 everything changed, everything.

In Genesis 3 sin entered into the human race and man fell, man fell. All of the creation was affected and all mankind. See after the fall the ramifications of sin affected the very first marriage union. Not only were they separated from God spiritually but their relationship, the relationship between Adam and Eve forever changed. It was not perfect anymore as it had been before. Their relationship was affected by sin. You see God put enmity between Adam and Eve. God goes on to say that Eve's desire shall be to rule over her husband and that sin. And then Adam shall desire to rule over her as well.

Then that first family, it was so affected by sin that the very first murder ever recorded was committed within the family. Brother killed brother. Now take a step back here and notice what Jesus is doing. In verse 6, Jesus was reminding the Jews that marriage was a permanent union which no man was to break. Jesus was building brick by brick right before them what God said about marriage. It was God who created man and joined the first man and woman. And God never intended any marriage union to be broken. Again, notice what verse 6 says, "What therefore God has joined together?

Let no man, not men, separate." Now question, what's Jesus' purpose here in verse 6? Again, the Jews knew these truths by heart. Jesus was reminding them that marriage was a permanent union never ever ever to be broken. They were responsible to God and God's standard. They had lowered that standard. Jesus was flying in the face of what they were doing. They were saying that man can divorce for any trivial reason as long as they give her a certificate. But Jesus was saying no. What God joins, no man must separate. Now an application, does that not describe men today?

I mean Jesus was reminding the Jews that marriage was a, it was permanent, a permanent union. And I'm afraid that not only have men forgotten that reality, forgotten that truth, there are many men that don't even know that that is a biblical truth to begin with. Now at this point I want us to see what is going on with the Jews in Jesus' day. You might say, "Pastor, you've been telling us that." There's really a lot. The Jewish leaders especially. You see, they had disconnected from God. Think about that with me. In all of these subjects here dealing with marriage and divorce and remarriage, they had disconnected from God.

Although they said they worship God, actually they had disconnected from God in every way. They had disconnected from His commandments, the Old Testament, because they had reduced them down. Remember to mere religion, it was all rules. A religion that fit their pride and fit their self. They had disconnected from God, from His Old Testament scriptures. Therefore they had disconnected from God's rule over their lives. Now this might shock some of you, but truthfully they had become like Lucifer. Y'all remember who Lucifer is? Remember in heaven, Lucifer the created angel of God. What did he do?

In pride he said, "I want to be like God." And he set himself up as his own God. That was the sin of the Jews and the Jewish leaders. They had disconnected from God, therefore setting themselves up as their own God's little G. Now listen folks, listen close. Any time a man or a people disconnect from God's word, disconnect from God's rule over them, they are disconnecting from God, therefore they are setting themselves up as their own God's little G. You see? Now as practical reformers, we must see that all of this describes people in our day. Specifically people in our culture. Think about how culture relates to marriage.

But yes, even people in our own families. Even people in the life of the church. People we know that have committed these grievous sins. They have forgotten or denied that God created them. He gave them life. They have forgotten or denied that God created marriage. It is his institution. Maybe they never saw it this way. They have forgotten or denied or never knew the very permanence of marriage. And what are the ramifications? What are the consequences?

Listen, people we know, hopefully not you, people today have set themselves up as their own God's little G in the area of divorce and remarriage and listen, these sins, dealing with divorce improperly and remarriage improperly, it leads to a whole host of other sins, grievous sins, even perpetual sins and we'll get to that. Now a question. Maybe you've been thinking something like this. Pastor, Brother Chris, why do you preach two sermons with so much background? Listen, folks, divorce has become so prevalent in our day and in our culture and even in our families and even in many churches that it is almost impossible to see things God's way.

That was exactly the problem of Jesus' day and that is why Jesus went all the way back to Genesis, all the way back to the beginning. It reminds me of something that I experienced when I was a little boy. I remember as a kid going to one of the homes that my dad grew up in or grew up in for a period of time. Truthfully, my dad had an interesting childhood. He lived in a lot of different places. That's another subject for another day, but he lived with an uncle for a little while. And I never forget being there at that house when I was a little boy. And I'm telling you it was right across the street from a paper mill.

Any of you ever smelled a paper mill? Have any of you ever been right across the street from a paper mill? I'm telling you, whoa, it stinks. It's a unique stink and it gets into everything. I'll never forget looking at my dad and I said, "How in the world could you stand living here in that smell every day?" He looked at me and said something like this, "Son, after a while you just get used to it." That was the way it was for the Jews in their day. They had smelled the rotten stink of sinful divorce and remarriage for so long that they never realized how utterly sinful they were.

They never realized that their sin had led to a whole host of other grievous sins and perpetual sins. And that is what Jesus is building up to. And listen, it's just like that in our day. We are so indoctrinated with the stink of divorce and the stench of divorce that we cannot even understand and see what God's word says. So as we begin to conclude, I want us to see that we must seek to be reformers. We must seek to practically reform our view of marriage and divorce and marriage after divorce according to the authority of God's word. And listen folks, we must be careful.

See every now and then something will come along, a subject to come along. And whether we know it or not, we'll take God's word and we'll pitch it off to the side and we'll say, "You know, I don't want to deal with that." And what we're doing is yanking pages out of our Bible. And what we're really doing is rejecting the sufficiency and the authority of God's word. And to be a practical reformer, we must submit ourselves to God's word period.

We must work in every way to bring our view of marriage, our view of divorce, our view of marriage after divorce back to what God's word says no matter the cost, no matter how deep the repentance, no matter what it takes. Now, if you think about it, last week and this week has been really foundational. A lot of background. Jesus did this. Remember, I'm following Jesus pattern in every way, but this is very relevant. But next week, listen, we really move and it gets more intense. Jesus gets very intense. He gets right up in the face of these Jews and this will get a lot more intense. It'll get a lot more personal.

And listen, be ready, be ready to submit to God's standard, not man's. Remember, Jesus is all about tearing their standard down and exalting a new standard, God's standard, the standard of God's word. Now, I want to conclude exactly the way I concluded last week. I said last week that we would revisit these motivations that I gave us. I really want us to embrace these motivations. And this must be how we approach this subject. Five motivations. First of all, our number one motivation must be for the glory of God. Listen, if we're a born again Christian, we must desire to love God and to obey God and to obey God's word.

No matter what, we must be willing to dig into God's word and come to a place of understanding, even if we must repent of sin in a very big way. And ultimately, that's all motivated by our desire for God to get glory out of our lives. Yes, we love God. Yes, we want to obey God's word, even when it may be hard, but we must be dominated by the fact that we want the glory of God in our lives. And then second, more practically, for our own families. Now, think about it. We have families. We have wives. And we have husbands. And we have children.

And we must desire to adjust our families to God's word as a father and as a man and as a leader of the home. We must lead our wives and lead our families and lead our families and children to do what? To be obedient to God's word. And so our motivation must be for the health and the good and the spiritual well-being of our families. And then third, for our own children. Listen, sin. It just goes from generation to generation. And if we flood this up, it affects our children and their children and their children's children.

See, we must be motivated for the good of our children and for the good of our children's children for generations to come. We must adjust our families to God's word and what it says. And we must teach our children and put this in their minds and hearts and raise their standard according to God's word when it comes to marriage and divorce and remarriage and everything associated with what Jesus is teaching. So this is for the good of our children and their future. And then our fourth motivation, this must motivate us for the good of the church. Listen, God's church is God's people. And we must desire to be used in the life of the church.

If you're a man, you must desire to be used in the life of the church. If you're a woman, you must desire to be used in the life of the church. You want your family and your children to be used in the life of the church. Don't be like an old friend of mine. I never forget years ago, I knew a gentleman who had come to faith in Christ later in life. And you know those kind? He had come to faith in Christ after he had gone around the block of sin many times. And when it came to marriage and children and divorce and remarriage, he looked me in the face with tears many, many days. And he says, "I've blown it. I've blown it. I've blown it all.

And I am not an example of what God's word says you should be when it comes to these areas." See, it's for the good of the church. And that man would tell you he could not be used in the life of the church as he would desire to be used. And then our fifth motivation is for the good of society. Listen, do we want to be used for the gospel and the glory of God in society? We learned in Matthew 5 earlier there in the Beatitudes, what? That we're to be salt and light. We're to be different. And the lost world should look to our marriages and they should see Christ's likeness in our marriages, God's word in our marriages.

How we deal with marriage, divorce, remarriage, and all of the sins associated with that. Listen, society and the world looks and they know. So you see these five motivations. We should be motivated, number one, for the glory of God, for the good of our own families, for the good of our children and their children's children, for the good of the church, and then also to be used in society. Now what's the title of the message? Divorce and remarriage. Is that what we see back in Matthew 5, verse 31 and 32? Divorce and remarriage. But remember what Jesus does in Matthew 5, 32?

He says, "Oh, but I say," see the second part of the title is divorce and remarriage. What does Jesus say? And we are learning what Jesus says about marriage, about divorce, about remarriage. And now we're going to get into next week, there's so much more connected to this and we're learning what Jesus says. And may God help us to open up our minds and our hearts. May we submit, may God help us to submit the authority of God's word. And no matter how great the repentance, no matter how hard we may have to work towards repentance, may we be willing to repent to align ourselves to what God's word says with these subjects. May God help us.

May God help us. Let's pray and let's commit what we've studied this morning to the Lord and to the work of the Spirit and ask the Lord to continue to do a work in us and to help us because we desperately need his help. Let's pray.