Well, good morning, everyone. It is so nice to be back and
see all your faces. Not be stuck on the couch in
the recliner. Very glad to be back. If you would open your
Bibles with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark the 10th chapter. Before
we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning reverently with a heart of worship,
daring only come into your presence, pleading the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, pleading his obedience as our only righteousness, pleading
his blood as the only cleansing of our sins. And Father, we come begging your
mercy and your grace, knowing we could only come into your
presence because of your grace, because of your mercy, that you
would accept us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and
not in anything that we have ever done or will ever do, but
only in him. Father, we're so thankful. We're
so thankful for your purpose of redemption for your people.
that you'd sacrifice your son to redeem the likes of us. Father,
we say with the songwriter, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus,
the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned
unclean. And Father, I pray this morning
that you would enable the name of your son to be lifted up and
exalted, that your people would see him with the eye of faith,
hear him, Lay hold on him with the heart of faith. Father, enable me to preach in
the power of your spirit, enable your people to hear in the power
of your spirit. Comfort our hearts, bless our
hearts, edify our hearts one more time with the message of
Christ our Savior. And what we ask for ourselves,
Father, we ask for your people, wherever they're meeting together
today, Bless your word as it's preached for your great namesake,
and to meet the needs of your people. Father, all these things
we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and
his glory we pray, amen. All right, now I've titled the
lesson this morning Marriage and Divorce. We begin in Mark
chapter 10, verse 1. And he arose from thence, and
cometh unto the coast of Judea, by the farther side of Jordan.
And the people resorted unto him again. And as he was wont,
he taught them again. And the Lord Jesus came back
to the coast of Judea, and Mark says, as he was want to do, he
taught the people again. That word want means as his manner
was, as he was accustomed to doing. The Lord's manner. was to teach the scriptures to
the people again. No matter how many times they
came to him, he kept teaching them the scriptures again and
again and again, because that's what he was accustomed to doing.
Our savior was always about his father's business. The Lord Jesus
was the greatest preacher and teacher to ever live. You think
what a blessing it was for these people who came to him again,
what a blessing it was to hear him teach the word. Those people were able to hear
the incarnate word open to them and preach to them the written
word. What a blessing that must have been. And there was always
an urgency with our Savior about preaching the gospel. He did
it again. He never got tired of doing it
again. Preachers today could learn a
very good lesson from this, from our Lord's example. And start
to get urgent about prayer and study and preaching instead of
getting caught up in so much junk that we see going around
us today. And hearers today could learn
a lesson from our Lord's example too. And start having a sense
of urgency about hearing the gospel preached instead of being
so casual about it. I know it's our whole society
that I saw a thing yesterday about how church attendance is
down across the whole United States. And somehow that attitude has
even affected God's church, that we become much too casual about
it. We'd be wise to have a sense of urgency about this thing,
just like our Lord did as he taught it and preached it. So
here's our Lord, the incarnate word, teaching the word. These people gathered together
to hear him teach them the word. And as is always the case, the
enemies of the gospel always attack where the gospel is being
preached and where it's being blessed. Look at verse two. And
the Pharisees came to him and asking, is it lawful for a man
to put away his wife, tempting him? Now, before I go on, I want
you to take note of this. It's the Pharisees who came where
the gospel was being preached, and they started a debate about
the law. Now, they made it sound religious,
didn't they? They took this thing they were trying to start a debate
about, and they wrapped it in scripture, trying to make it
look very holy. But I want to tell you, it was
evil. This is evil. They came and took attention
away from the scriptures and the gospel being preached. And
they didn't do it so people could learn something useful. They
were doing it to trying to trap the Lord into saying something
against the law of Moses. And people today still want to
debate this issue, this issue, for the same reason that the
Pharisees did. Many years ago, I went to preach
at a place. They didn't have a pastor. And I was asked to go preach
to him one weekend. And I was warned. when you get
there, you know, they're going to have a get together on Saturday.
And I have lots of questions. Okay. You know, the first question
that they asked me and the question that kept coming up throughout
all that evening, what about a man who, uh, is, is divorced
and he marries a woman who, who maybe she is single. Maybe she
was divorced. What, what, what should the church do with them? I was a young man, and I tried to answer
that question carefully. I would have much less patience
for that today than I did at that time. I tell you what to
do with them. Worship together with them. I
mean, my soul. I mean, you've got to be kidding
me. They were arguing about this
and debating about this and wanted to bring this up for the very
same reason that the Pharisees did. Trying to make themselves
feel better because I haven't done something wrong that somebody
else has done. Let me tell you, if a subject
like that comes up, just let this be in the back of your mind.
Don't be a Pharisee. Don't have the attitude of a
Pharisee. What the scriptures. have to
say about marriage and divorce, it says to you. It doesn't say
it to somebody else. It says to you about your conduct,
about what you're supposed to do, not so that you can be judgmental
about somebody else. That's true of every issue in
scripture. Now that being said, there are
some very important things taught about marriage in scripture,
and I want us to look at them. and learn from them so that we
can apply them to ourselves, not so that we can look down
our nose at somebody else. And if we'll look at it that
way, I believe we'll get a blessing from what the scriptures are
teaching. The number one is this. God ordained marriage for the
good of man. Look at verse six. But from the
beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his
wife. Now marriage was ordained by
God for the good of man, for the happiness, the best welfare
of man. God himself performed the first
wedding ceremony in the Garden of Eden when he brought Eve to
Adam. That was the first wedding and almighty God performed it.
And God said, marriage is good. This is gonna be good for Adam.
It's good for Eve too. Marriage is good for us in this
life. God said it's not good that a man should be alone. If
you ever wanna see the truth of that, just go look at some
bachelor pad somewhere. See the difference between the
way a man lives if he's by himself and he's got a wife. It's much
better. It's not good that a man should
be alone. So God made the woman for man. God made a man and a
woman to be with each other and to be married to each other.
God made the man and the woman to love one another. Your life
is just always better off if somebody loves you. God made
the man and the woman to be committed to one another, to compliment
one another, to bring happiness to each other, to care for each
other. Now you got somebody doing that
for you, that's good for you, isn't it? And if you've got somebody
that you do that for, that you love, that you want to take care
of, that you're committed to, that's good for you too. So marriage
is good for us individually, And marriage is good for our
society. Now I know this, nobody probably outside this
room would really believe me, but marriage is good for our
society. Society, nations, towns, places are better where there's
strong families, where there's strong family values, where there's
strong commitment to the family. Society and nations are simply
better off when mom and dad are both in the home, they both love
each other, and they're raising and teaching their children.
Society's better off. And in segments of population
where that's not true, there's higher crime rates, higher poverty,
and lower education. None of which is good, in case,
you know, maybe you didn't notice that. And the values and conduct
of society have gone down as the divorce rates went up. Now
that's just so. And marriage is such an important
topic that is given to us in Ephesians chapter five as a picture
of the union between Christ and his bride. Now, most people end
up being married. So we have a picture of Christ
in our homes, in our everyday lives. And if we'll look at it
that way and treat it that way, we're going to have a happier,
stronger, more loving marriage if we do. And that's just good
for us. Here's the second thing. Marriage
is good for us for individually and for society. And the second
thing is this. God hates divorce. Verse eight,
and the twain shall be one flesh. So then there are no more twain,
they're not two, they're one, one flesh. What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Now this is
God's way. It's for marriages to stay together.
Husbands and wives are to love one another, we're to sacrifice
for one another, for the good and the happiness of the other.
of our spouse. We're to think about the good
and happiness of our spouse before we think about ourselves. You
know, I hate somebody that says, well, I'm just in it. I'm going
to stick it out. I'm just going to be in this
marriage. I'm going to stick it out. Well, instead of just sticking it out,
I'll tell you what to do. Do whatever it takes to make
your spouse happy and loved so that they don't want a divorce,
so that they wouldn't want to leave you. so that they see you
as the best option for the good of their life. And I know divorce
is very, very, very prevalent in our day, but I'm gonna tell
you this, God still hates it. Look back at Malachi, the last
book in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter two. Malachi two, verse 11. Judah hath dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For
Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved,
and hath married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will
cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out
of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering
unto the Lord of hosts. And this have you done again,
covering the altar of the Lord with tears and weeping and with
crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any
more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet you say,
wherefore, why? Because the Lord has seen a witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously. Yet she is thy companion and
the wife of thy covenant. God judged Israel at that time
because divorce was so prevalent that men were dealing treacherously
with the wife of their youth. Now that just is all we need
to know to see that God hates divorce. He hates to see a broken
wedding vow and separation because that marriage is a picture of
Christ and his bride. And they'll never be separated.
So when we have divorces and those kind of things, we're violating
that picture. But Christ will never leave his
bride. He loves her with an everlasting love. He'll never leave her.
And the bride will never leave him because she loves him. She
needs him. She loves being dependent on
him and resting in him. And we should strive at every
turn to make our marriages an example of that relationship
between Christ and his bride. All right, here's the third thing. A marriage is good for us and
God hates it for us. But God allowed a bill of divorcement
in his law, and he did it because of man's sinfulness. Look at
verse three, Mark chapter 10. And he answered and said unto
them, well, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered
to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus
answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart,
he wrote you this precept. Now, God hates divorce, but God
did give Moses a Bill of Divorcement, a way to separate a marriage
in the Old Testament law. Now, God didn't give this Bill
of Divorcement because divorce is good. God gave a Bill of Divorcement
because of the sinfulness of man, because of the hardness
of our heart, because of the deadness of man's heart. Tell
you why God gave this Bill of Divorcement. It's to stop murder
and the abuse of women. That's why he did it. Many years ago, a woman came
to me. Why me? I have absolutely no
idea. But tell me about problems in
her marriage. And she was going to leave her
husband. And I started to counsel her. Now, just wait a minute
here. Let's not be too hasty in this
matter of seeking a divorce. And she said, if I don't leave
him, he's either going to kill me. or I'm going to kill him
in his sleep, one or the other, in the next few days. And I said,
well, okay, let's get you out of this situation. Let's not
get anybody killed, right? That's why the Lord gave this
bill of divorce. Because somebody thinks, well,
I can't get out of this marriage. I'll just kill my wife and, you
know, then marry somebody else. And Lord, at this time, when
the Pharisees came to him, divorce was just as bad in this day.
as it is in our day. That's why the Lord called them
an adulterous generation, because divorce was just as bad then
as it is today. And what the Pharisees really
wanted, they wanted to find a loophole in the law so that a man could
divorce his wife for just any reason whatsoever. It was so
common that couples just could not get along and would divorce.
Even the disciples thought, you know what? It's better just don't
get married. Because every marriage I know
is so bad and makes everybody so miserable, it's better off
just don't get married. Because every marriage they saw
was so bad. And our Lord said, now marriages
are not supposed to end in divorce that way. But they do, and the
Lord allowed it because of the sin and the hardness that's in
the hearts of husbands and wives alike. Marriages should not end
in divorce. And at the same time, people
shouldn't be stuck in bad marriages. Both of those things are true.
The husband should love the wife and sacrifice for her. The wife,
the same for the husband, should love and sacrifice for him so
that neither of them wants a divorce. Now that's the way it should
be. But God gave Moses this bill of divorcement, this way out,
to stop spouses from killing each other. Now let that sink in for a minute. That tells you how rotten our
nature is, doesn't it? Tells you how rotten it is that
God gave a bill of divorcement so that we don't kill the person
that we stood in front of God and the preacher and all of our
friends and promised to love them forever. God gave a bill
of divorce so we don't kill that person. That's our nature. But then there's another thing,
verse 10. Look over here at verse 10. And
in the house, his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he said unto them, whosoever
should put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. And if a woman shall put away
her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery. Now look over 1 Corinthians chapter
seven. What the Lord is referring to
there is what is taught in scripture that in cases of adultery, a
spouse is free to divorce and remarry. They're free to do that.
And the apostle Paul adds the same thing, desertion or abandonment,
the spouse is free to remarry. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 10. And unto the married I command,
yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her
husband, but, and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or
be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away
his wife. But to the rest speak I, not
the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that
believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not
put her away. And if the woman hath an husband
which believeth not, she's a believer, but he's not, And if he be pleased
to dwell with her, let her not leave him, for the unbelieving
husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband, else were your children unclean,
but now they're holy. But if the unbelieving depart,
let him depart. If they desert you and leave
you over the gospel, let them depart. A brother or sister is
not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife,
whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether
thou shalt save thy wife? Now you know what the Lord's
saying, not that you'll save them, but that this person, your
unbelieving husband or wife, may come to hear the gospel.
They may think there's something to this because they see the
way that you conduct themselves. But I read all that to say this,
that in the case of abandonment, now the believer's not under
bondage, they're free to remarry. Now in these cases of adultery
and abandonment, divorce is permitted. The believer's not under any
obligation, they're not under any burden about this. But now
listen, it's not required. It's not required. I've read through a bunch of
this book, and I see a whole lot in this book about forgiveness,
about grace, about being merciful, about reconciliation, And it's
possible for a couple to forgive and reconcile even in cases of
adultery or abandonment. It's possible that they could
forgive one another, reconcile together, and still have a loving
home. And if they can do that, that
would be best for everybody involved, wouldn't it? But whether they
do or they don't, we need to remember this. It's none of my
business. It is none of my business what
they do. Now in a nutshell, that's what
the scriptures teach about marriage and divorce. And I'm quite confident
I haven't told anybody here something that you didn't already know.
But this is, what scripture, I'm gonna repeat this, has told
us about marriage is for our own marriages. Not so that we
can be judgmental of somebody else. Remember, always keep this
in the back of your mind. Don't be a Pharisee. Don't be
that guy. Don't have that attitude. Now
so far, I've showed you the law regarding marriage and divorce.
And it's very important so that we know what the scriptures has
to say on this subject. But now I want to preach Christ
to you. Now we see what the scriptures, this is how these things should
be handled. But now I want to preach Christ
to you from this passage so that we'll get a blessing from it.
We want to know what the scriptures say. But we want to see from
the scriptures how it points us to Christ so that we'll be
blessed by it. You can know what the scriptures
say and not be blessed by it because you don't see how they
reveal Christ. You see what I'm saying? So this
is how I want us to be blessed by it because we see how this
thing of marriage gives us a picture of Christ our Savior, Christ
our Bridegroom. And if the Lord will enable us
to see it, it'll draw our hearts Now that's the first and foremost,
that's the most important thing. It'll draw our hearts to Christ
and make us want to believe him, want to love him, want to run
to him. At the same time, it'll make
us make every effort to be better husbands and better wives. Now
salvation began in eternity past when the father elected a people
unto salvation. He elected a sinful people to
save out of Adam's fallen race. He chose those people and he
gave those people to his son. He put those people in his son
to redeem them. And the son promised that when
the time came, he would redeem them. When the father elected
a people and gave those people to his son, it was an arranged
marriage. That's exactly what it was. It
was an arranged marriage. The father chose a people who
would become the bride of his son. And the father, did not
choose a beautiful, spotless virgin to be the bride of his
son. The father chose a sinful people.
He chose the worst of Adam's race. He chose the wife of whoredoms. He chose the worst of the worst
to be the bride for his son. The father chose those people
and gave them to his son, and the son loved them. He loved
them. They were his bride. He's the
bridegroom, and they were the bride, and he loved them with
a perfect, everlasting love. But the bride abandoned the son. We all left God and Adam, and
we ran as far away from Christ as we could. The bride committed
spiritual adultery against the son. We sought pleasure in free
will religion. We sought pleasure in self-righteousness,
in earning our own righteousness. We sought pleasure in religion
that exalts man and debases Christ. That's what we sought. Now you
know what would be permitted in that case? For the son, the
bridegroom, to divorce us and say, I want nothing to do with
him. They've committed adultery, I'm gonna cut him off. I'm gonna
have eternal separation from them, whereby they will be damned. Now that would be permitted under
the law, wouldn't it? But if Christ did that, if the
Son did that with the people that the Father gave him to save,
it would be right. Nobody can deny it would be right
for God to damn us because of our sin, to separate us from
him forever because of our sin. But if he did that with everybody,
If he did that with even one that the father gave him to save,
we'd have to ask, what about grace? What about mercy? What about forgiveness? What
about God's love for his people? So you know what the son did?
He still loved his bride. He still loved his people. And
he set about to redeem her and bring her back to God, to bring
her to him. He became a man. The son of God
became a man, a human being, so that he could be bone of her
bone and flesh of her flesh. He became a man so that he could
be the sacrifice for her sin that would pay the sin debt that
she racked up against him. And he paid that price in full
with his own precious blood. He gave his life to pay her sin
debt. He loved that wife that went
after many different men. and he provided for her anyway.
She was a rebel against him. He had set his love upon her.
Now, she didn't know it yet, but he set his love upon her
and he kept her safe until the time that he would reveal himself
to her and bring her back to him. And he did that. He did that. He revealed himself
to her. He brought her back to him. He made her run to him and
love for him and need for him and beg him for mercy and grace
from him. He did all of that because he was committed to his
bride. Because he loved her. Because he thought about what
was best for her, not how to avoid suffering for himself.
And he redeemed her. And he brought her back to him
in great love for her. And now she'll never leave him.
She loves him too much, she'll never leave him. She's so thankful
for his mercy and for his grace. Well, that's how God saved his
people. And God gave us a picture of that. He devoted the entire
book of Hosea to give us a picture of Christ redeeming his bride
who had committed such spiritual fornication against him. He redeemed
her anyway, brought her to him anyway. Now look at Jeremiah
chapter three, in closing, Jeremiah chapter three. Verse one. They say, if a man put away his
wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he
return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly
polluted? But thou has played the harlot
with many lovers. Yet return again to me, saith
the Lord. Would a man take back his wife
that left him and committed adultery with another man? Most men wouldn't
do it, would they? Most men wouldn't do it. But
God has. God has. He's called to his people
and said, now you played the harlot, but you return to me. And God draws his people to him
in love for them and makes them love him and cling to him and
be with him. God did that for his people despite
all of their sin against him. Now, if that doesn't break your
heart, Nothing will. And if that doesn't make you
want to be a better husband or a better wife, nothing else will
either. No amount of counseling and psychology
will make you want to be a better husband or better wife more than
the gospel of Christ our Savior, Christ our bridegroom. I hope
that'll be a blessing to you. All right, you're dismissed.