That is such a beautiful picture
there. He shall see His seed and He shall prolong days. The
very reason for which He died. Well, I think everything our
Lord did when He walked this earth was a sermon. All the things that took place
around Him was illustrating the things He preached as He walked
this earth. And that's the case with our
text tonight. Let's turn to Matthew 19. Matthew 19. I like to connect
these Scriptures because they're in the order they are in on purpose. And it says here in Matthew 19,
verse 1, And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished
these sayings... Now, these sayings was what we
saw last week. It was our Master's instruction
about never offending your brethren. and then His instruction on forgiving
without limit those brethren who offend you. Now after He
finished these sayings, it says, verse 1, He departed from Galilee
and He came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan. And great
multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there. And the
Pharisees also came unto Him tempting Him. Now this is how
it is in our day, just like it was then, where you find Christ
healing His people, you also find Pharisees. It never fails,
wherever I go to preach, you'll find those that Christ has healed
by His grace and you'll find Pharisees, legalists who are
in fact lawless, antinomians. If you're a legalist, you're
an antinomian. That's really the truth of it. And they try
to come to God unlawfully by their law-keeping. Self-righteous,
self-sanctifying religious folks will use this very passage, right
here, to do the very same thing that the Pharisees were doing
in this passage. That is, tempting Christ. Here
was Christ healing sinners. Here was Christ gloriously displaying
His ability to heal sinners spiritually and forgive us of our sins because
of His accomplished redemption. This is what He was doing in
these physical healings. He was showing us a great example
of His ability to heal us spiritually. Fully, completely, forgive us
of our sins. There He is doing this and yet
there are always those who would have the focus to be taken off
of Christ and to be put on them and their work or their so-called
law-keeping with questions like these that these Pharisees ask.
And they're trying to justify themselves for their infidelity
toward Christ. Now this is what our subject
is about. Tonight our subject is marriage, adultery, and grace. And what these Pharisees are
doing here is spiritual infidelity. It's spiritual adultery. They're
attempting to come to God by their law keeping. They're attempting
to justify their rebellion against God using the law to do so. And yet Christ answers their
questions. And so we're going to look into
the Lord's Word tonight concerning marriage and adultery and grace. As believers, if we would honor
Christ in our lives and if we would have the correct attitude
toward others, as we look at this subject, Let each of us,
as believers, be reminded that Christ is our husband and we're
his bride. As the church, we're his bride. Now, first of all, we have the
question, verse 3. The Pharisees also came unto
him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife for every cause? Now notice how they
word this question. Is it lawful for a man to put
away his wife for every cause? Now in that day, divorce was
as common as it is in our day. The attitude was like it is today. Any cause is a good cause to
dissolve a marriage in divorce. Men and women enter the marriage
covenant thinking that if anything arises, it's justifiable to get
a divorce. We get an idea of how corrupted
man's idea of marriage had become in their day by the disciples'
comment in verse 10. After the Lord told them that
marriage is for life, they answered this way, verse 10. His disciples
say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife,
then it's not good to marry. In other words, if a man can't
divorce his wife for any cause, then it's not good to marry at
all. So they asked the master this question. Is it lawful for
a man to put away his wife for every cause? Now, here's the
answer. Our Lord answers that marriage
is for life. Look at verse 4. And he answered
and said unto them, Have you not read that he which made them
at the beginning made them male and female? and said, For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Wherefore there
no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder." Let not man divide. Now notice
he says at the beginning, that is in the Genesis, God made male
and female. And he says there, And God said,
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. God made
the marriage covenant and the marriage union between a husband
and wife to picture the marriage covenant, the marriage union
between Christ and his church, his bride, every elect child
of God individually. Now, turn over to Ephesians chapter
5 and let's see this. Ephesians chapter 5. Sinners must be born of God.
That's what Christ told us plainly. We have to be born of the incorruptible
seed. And until we're born of the word
of God, and Peter says that is the gospel whereby the, that's
the word whereby the gospel is preached unto you. And until
we're born of the incorruptible seed, we don't, we're not alive. A believer's not alive. But when
we are, when we are, and we're called to faith in Christ, the
believer becomes subject to Christ as our head, our Lord, as well
as our Savior. And this is pictured in the wife's
reverence toward her husband. Look at Ephesians 5 verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife. Now here's why God made this
marriage covenant, this marriage union, is to picture this right
here. Even as Christ is the head of the church, And He is the
Savior of the body. He's the Head and the Savior.
He's Lord and He's Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything. Everything? In everything. Is
there anything that we're not subject to Christ in? We're subject
to Christ in everything. And He says, so let the wives
be subject to their husbands in everything. And then Christ
becomes to the believer the one who loved us and who gave himself
for us. Now to picture that, the husband
is to love his bride as Christ loves the church. Look at verse
25. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word." This is why Christ died. We read in Hebrews 10,
by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And he did this that he might cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word. Through the preaching of the
gospel, we're washed in regeneration and born again. This is why Christ
died. That he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ's love
for his people is what moved him to enter the marriage covenant
for his bride. Christ entered into covenant
to save his bride, all God's elect, for his great love wherewith
he loved us. So it's between, that's how it
is between a husband and a wife. There cannot be any commitment,
there cannot be any marriage where there's no love. Love sacrifices
self. It's full of self-denial. Love
gives rather than takes. Christ gave himself for those
that God gave to him. God the Father gave Him an elect
people and He gave Himself for them unto death. Love commits
in full devotion. Christ shall never put away His
bride. He won't lose one. He will not
put away His bride. He sanctifies and He washes His
bride. He makes her holy. This is Christ's
glory. We've been seeing this in Isaiah
53, 10. Why did it please the Lord to
bruise him? Why did he put him to grief? Well, number one, he
made his soul an offering for sin. Number two, because he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong their days. And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall, we saw in
Galatians 3, there that the same promise he made to Abraham, that
the blessings of God will come on the Gentiles, that they would
be called through faith. And that's why Christ came. He
came and He was made a curse for us and He redeemed us from
the curse of the law that we might receive the blessing of
Abraham. That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. That's why Christ died, that
His children be born again and brought to Him and cleansed.
And likewise, the husband is to be joined to his wife for
life, to sanctify her as set apart, as one that was set apart
by God for him before the foundation of the world. And to cover her
sins, and to protect her and keep her fully. Because that's
what Christ has done for His bride. He covered our sins. He
perfected forever them that are sanctified. He keeps us. He provides
for us. That's the picture here between
a husband and a wife. The husband is to give himself
for her completely. And Christ does so for his bride
because the believer is one flesh with Christ. Look at verse 28.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones." Believer, we're members of Christ's
body. We're members of His flesh, we're
members of His bones. Ephesians 1.22 says, The church
is His body. It's the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. The believer's union with Christ
is our constraint against infidelity. Let me give this to you. This
is from 1 Corinthians 6.15. He said, Know ye not that your
bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall
be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that
a man does without the body is without the body. But he that
committh fornication sinneth against his own body. And for
a believer, that sinneth against his own body means you're sinning
against Christ's own body. Against Christ's own body. Because
we're members of his body. We're members one with him. So
a husband is to give himself for his bride, for she's his
own body. She's his own body. Now look,
because we're one flesh with Christ, therefore the believer
leaves all other relationships behind. and joins himself to
Christ. Now that's pictured in marriage.
Look here. The relationship between a husband and a wife is superior
to the relationship between a parent and a child. It's superior to
that. Now watch this right here. The
man leaves his father and his mother for his bride. Verse 31.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother. You see,
this relationship between Christ and the believer, his bride,
it's superior to all other relationships. And it's pictured here in marriage. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. This whole thing
he's been saying here is about Christ and the church. Nevertheless,
let every one of you, in particular, so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So you got this
beautiful picture here. A beautiful picture between Christ
and his bride, the church. And it's set forth in marriage.
And this is why God the Father says, What therefore God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder. Alright? Now here's
the condemnation. Here's the condemnation. Back
in our text, Matthew 19. They say unto him, verse 7, they
say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of
divorcement and to put her away? Now that's what I read to you
before we began. Since the fall, since sin entered
in and death by sin, this is the way of vain, spiritually
dead religion. This is the way. Here stands
God the Son. Here stands the great lawgiver
himself. Here he stands, Christ who is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And
yet these self-righteous men set the law, the letter of the
law, against the lawgiver. Their idea of righteousness they
set against the righteous one. The law against he who is the
very fulfillment of the law. They set the letter of the law
against Christ who is the fulfillment of the law for every believer.
And they're essentially calling Christ an antinomian. That's
what they're doing. They're essentially saying he's
against the law. He's against the law. And they're
putting the law above the lawgiver. Why? Why are they doing that?
They're trying to justify themselves before God using the law. That's
what they're trying to do. This is spiritual infidelity
against Christ. This is spiritual adultery against
Christ. But when a sinner appeals to
the law before God to try to justify his rebellion, do you
know what happens to him every time? He condemns himself. Look at verse 8. He saith unto
them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you
to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Now, Moses was not approving of divorce, but because of the
hardness of their hearts, to help the wife, to prevent greater
evils, to prevent these men, they had the law that said they
couldn't put their wife away. But they didn't like her. It's
said in some of the old Jewish writings, if she salted his food
too much, he'd put her away. Just frivolous thing. But they
couldn't put her away. So what they'd do is they would
just spread all kinds of unjust accusations about her and say
that she was an adulteress or something like that. Or they
would kill her. if it came to that, to get rid
of her so they didn't have to be married to her. And so as
a civil judge, as a lawgiver, a civil lawgiver, Moses suffered
them to put away their wives. And for these Pharisees to stand
here and say, well, Moses said we could do this, it would be
the same as a sodomite standing up before God in the Day of Judgment
and say, well, the United States of America said that we could
marry men with men. Well, that don't make it lawful
with God. The way Moses ordered it to be
done made it less appealing to the husband in many ways. It
was more disgraceful for that man to put her away. It really
was. Now still, in the hardness of
their hearts, they still put away their wives. They still
did it. And the Lord said, but from the beginning it was not
so. Lawfulness before God is not measured by the toleration
of a civil government, of a political government. You understand? That's
the point I was just trying to make there. It's not from traditions
of men, but from God's law, from God's law. Now, never appeal
to the law to try to justify rebellion before God. You see
how Christ took it and turned it right around on them and he
condemned them. He said, it's because of your own hardness.
Now this is what the scripture says, We know that whatsoever
things the law says, it says to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Now, fourthly, let's see God's
grace. Alright, verse 9. He says, And
I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it
be for fornication. And shall marry another, commiteth
adultery. And whoso marrieth her which
is put away, doth commit adultery. Now, in Mark you'll find that
this is true of the woman too. It goes both ways, either the
man or the woman. It's true if the woman puts the
man away. Fornication here includes all
sexual infidelity. This is the exception our Savior
gives for divorce. The man who divorces his wife
for other reasons and marries another commits adultery. And
his new wife commits adultery. And the man who marries the woman
he put away also commits adultery. And the woman he put away commits
adultery. Why? Because in God's eye, the
man who put away his wife, who divorced her, is still married
to the woman. In God's eye, he's still married
to the woman. Now, I'm going to show you here in a minute.
That's a great blessing if you're a sinner. That's a great blessing. But now be sure to get what the
Lord is teaching here. He's not teaching that men and
women should get a divorce if one or the other commits adultery
or fornication. That's not what he's teaching.
He's teaching it's lawful to do so. It's lawful before God
to do so. But He's not teaching that it's
necessarily the best thing to do. Now, what had our Lord just
got... What did He just get through
teaching? He just got through teaching not to offend your brethren. And when you are offended by
your brethren, to forgive without limit. And that's the better
way. That is the better way. To forgive. Our Lord had just spoken of forgiving
without limit. That's the better way. Has God
not forgiven you and I, brethren? Has He not forgiven us? Now,
turn over to Malachi chapter 2. Just a few pages back from
Matthew. Malachi chapter 2. Under the old covenant, The Jews
forsook their marriage covenant with their wives to marry wives
in heathen nations. God gave a law and he said you
can't marry outside of Israel. But they liked those Gentile
women and they put their Jewish wives away and they married heathen
women. They married Gentile women. Now that was a sign of their
forsaking the greater spiritual marriage covenant between them
and God. They were under covenant of works
and they disregarded that covenant. And it was evident that they
did when they paid no attention whatsoever to God's law and went
on and married these wives anyway. And it shows us, brethren, a
picture of how we, you and I, God's elect, how we broke the
marriage covenant with Christ when we sinned in Adam. Our Lord
throughout history, you remember why the flood came? The flood
came because the sons of God married the children of the earth
or something of that nature. And anyway, they did the same
thing. Then again here with Israel,
He repeats it. He shows it again. They do the
same thing. Let's read this together. This
is a picture. This shows us what we did in the garden. Now look,
Malachi 2.10, Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God
created us? Why do we deal treacherously? And this is what God refers to
as divorce right here, especially when He calls it dealing treacherously.
Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother
by profaning the covenant of our fathers? You see, their profaning
of that covenant, that was to deal treacherously with everybody
in their nation. Marriage pictures the marriage
covenant between Christ and his bride. And they put away that
covenant which God made with their fathers. They divorced
themselves from that covenant that they made with their fathers.
This was the greater sin than taking up with Gentile women.
This was the greater sin in it. And that's what I'm trying to
show you here is we've sinned greater in spiritual adultery
and spiritual infidelity toward God in Adam in the garden. All
right. And that's what all God's elect
did in Adam. Now look at 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. Not only did we forsake the marriage
covenant in Adam, we married the daughter of a strange God.
Now that's what we did when we were dead in our sins. That strange
God of self, that strange God of sin, that strange God of self-righteousness,
it was all idolatry. It was of our imagination, our
corrupt imagination. That's what idolatry is. Before
an idol gets created into an image, it starts in the imagination. It starts in the heart. That's
where the man's defiled. Look at verse 12. The Lord will
cut off the man that doeth this. That means cut off means divorce,
put away. The Lord will cut off the man
that doeth this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles
of Jacob and him that offer an offering unto the Lord of hosts.
He's saying God will by no means clear the guilty. He's saying
from the least to the greatest in religion or out of religion,
God's going to cut the man off that forsakes God and takes up
with strange daughters of strange idol gods. Look at verse 13.
And this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord
with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that
he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with
goodwill at your hand. Like them, we remained religious. Every man born in this world
is religious. Everybody. But it was a strange wife. You
see, they took up with these strange heathen women, they forsook
God's covenant, but they still came to the house of God and
wept over the altar and cried unto God like they were worshipping
God. Now look at this. Verse 14, Yet you say, Wherefore? Wherefore? Because the Lord hath
been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against
whom thou hast dealt treacherously. is she thy companion and the
wife of thy covenant. In God's eye, the wife that they
put away was still their wife. He said, God's a witness. He
was a witness. When you get married, when you
get married, there's more witnesses there than just those people
in the room. That's what he said here. God's a witness. He said,
God's a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against
whom thou has dealt treacherously. You put her away, he said. And
he said, and yet, She's still your companion. She's still your
wife. She's still your wife. She's
the wife of your covenant. This is how it is before God.
Now, thankfully, though we played the harlot, thankfully, though
we played the adulteress in Adam, when we sinned in the garden,
in God's eye, that marriage covenant that He made with His elect and
His Son before the foundation of the world, still was intact. We were still his bride because
he entered that covenant before the world began. Look at verse
15. And did not he make one? In the beginning he made Adam
one wife. Likewise he made Christ one bride. The church is elect. Look at
verse 15. Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, he could have
made as many brides as he wanted to for Adam. That's what he's
saying there. He could have done whatever he
wanted to and made as many brides as he wanted to for Adam. And
wherefore one? Why did he just make one? That
he might seek a godly seed. In other words, that he might
bring forth legitimate children and not illegitimate children.
He chose one bride. and he gave her to Christ and
he put all his elect in Christ that Christ might come and wash
us from our sins in his blood and that he might send forth
the gospel and we'd be regenerated and washed in regeneration and
born of that incorruptible seed and a new man be created that
we might be raised up to him holy and without blame, without
wrinkle, without spot whatsoever, that we will be a legitimate
godly seed created by our husband. And spiritually, brethren, as
the church of God, we have to stay true to the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ and preach this gospel. Because otherwise,
you could fill up a building with people. but they're illegitimate
children. Because, as Peter said, it's
through the incorruptible seed, it's through the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you that Christ our husband births
his children through his church. Just like you birth your children
through your bride. Christ does that through his
church. He does, and he gets the glory for doing it. Look
at verse 15. He says, Therefore take heed to your spirit, and
let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." Not only
your earthly wife, your first bride, but that everlasting marriage
covenant of grace in Christ. Don't ever turn away from Christ.
Don't turn back to the law from the lawgiver. Don't turn back
from the one who is our righteousness to try to work out a righteousness
of our own. Stay upon Christ. Rest in Christ. Trust that Christ will present
you holy and without blame before God. Look at verse 16. For the
Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. Now watch this. He's talking
about our putting away. He's talking about our putting
away. God does not put away. He's talking about our putting
away. Watch this. For one covereth violence with his garment, saith
the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed, ye spirit,
that ye deal not treacherously. What does this mean, one covereth
violence with his garment? Well, one writer said this. He said
that in the same way that a sinner covers the divorce of his first
wife with another wife, He covers the violence of divorcing his
first wife with a garment, that is, marrying another wife. In
that same way, spiritually, sinners who forsake Christ try to cover
their sins by taking the idolatrous bride of vain religion just like
Judah had done. That's what God's complaint with
them is. And he said, you've forsaken
me and you've taken a strange God and you're coming to my altar
and you're coming into my tabernacle and weeping like you're serving
me. You've covered your violence by taking another garment, you
see. But God hates putting away. But now he said there, any man
that does this, he said, I'll cut him off. He said, from the
least to the greatest, from the scholar to the religious man
in my tabernacle, in the tabernacles of Jacob, I'll cut him off. How
can he cut us off and not put us away. He cut off his son in
our room instead. He cut him off in place of his
people. His son took our place. He took our place. He became
that one before God who had the crimes, our crimes, he took and
he paid for them and he put them away. Turn to Hosea 3. Go back
just a few more pages now. Hosea 3. This is one of my favorite passages
in Scripture. God shows us here what a faithful
husband Christ is using Gomer and Hosea. Hosea's name means
Savior. He was the husband of this woman
named Gomer. I don't have time to read the
first two chapters, but in those first two chapters, let me give
you the gist of it. Hosea married Gomer, just like
Christ married his bride before the world began. And it wasn't
too long, And Gomer went to practicing her adultery, just like it wasn't
very long in the garden that we began practicing adultery
when we fell in Adam. And as soon as we were born,
we went about practicing our evil because evil is what we
wear in our heart. And yet, in the scripture, she
had corn and oil and wine and everything she needed at her
door continually because Hosea kept putting it at her door.
And that's what Christ did for us. While we were in our whoredoms,
practicing our whoredoms, and our harlotry, and our adultery,
and our sin, Christ kept providing everything we needed in this
life. Keeping us, protecting us, providing for us. And then
He comes to a place where He says, now I'm going to take it
away. And I'm going to hedge up her way with thorns. And she's
going to seek her lovers, but she won't find her lovers, because
He won't permit it. And He said, and I'm going to
discover to her her lewdness. And that's what He did to us.
He hedged up our way with thorns. He took away all the pleasant
fruits that we thought our lovers were providing for us. And when
He did that, brethren, He discovered to us our lewdness. He showed
us our sin. He showed us our adultery. Have
you seen your adultery against Christ? Have you seen that's
all you are before Christ? And I'll tell you something now.
A man can look down his nose on on husbands and wives from
committing adultery, but it's not nearly as bad as what you
are before God without Christ. I can guarantee you that. I can
guarantee you that. But what Christ did, now look
here. While we were playing the harlot like this, we went many
days without Christ. Look at verse 4. The children
of Israel, I'm sorry, Hosea 3 verse 4. Hosea 3 verse 4. The children
of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a
prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without
an ephod, and without a teraphon. Now this was us, brethren, while
we were in our rebellion. This is why Israel went without
this. It's because they broke covenant
with God, just like we did in the garden. And God made it so
they did not have this in the days before Christ came. We were
without Christ, our King and our Prince. We were without Christ
who is to sacrifice for our sins. We were without Christ's image
in our inward man. We were without Christ the Ephod
and Teraphim, which is the glorious presence of Christ our High Priest,
the Urim and the Thummim. We were without Christ. We were
without God. We were without hope in the world. But though
we played the harlot, you know what God did for His elect? He
determined our end from the beginning. Look at verse 5. Afterward shall
the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and
David their King, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in
the latter days. You know what Hebrews 1 tells
us? It tells us we've been in the latter days since Christ
came. This happened, they were without
all these things before Christ came. And when Christ came, you
know what He began to do? He began to call out His people.
And they began to come to Christ. On the day of Pentecost, He set
His hand a second time and He called out a multitude. And he
began sending forth his gospel to the Gentiles and calling his
Israel out of the Gentiles too. And when he's called them all
out, brethren, they're going to be going to the house then.
Look here now. But what about our sin? God must
cut us off to be just. What was the word of the Lord
to Gomer's husband? What did the Lord say to Gomer's
husband? Here you got this wife that's just a harlot. That's
all she is. She's adulterous. She's not worth
anything. What are you going to do with
this woman? What's God going to do with his elect? She's an
adulterer. His bride's an adulterer. She's
a harlot. She's not worth saving. What's he going to do with her?
What's God's word to his son? Look back up at verse 1. Hosea
3, verse 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Go
yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. Now watch this. According to
the love of the Lord, toward the children of Israel who look
to other gods and love flagons of wine." If you're an elect
child of God, you're one of the children of Israel. And God sent
His Son. He chose His bride for His Son
and He sent His Son even when we were in our adultery and our
harlotry. He said, go yet and love that
woman according to my love for these children. You go love her. And Christ came and he laid down
his life. Under that law that Moses gave,
it said this, it said that that first husband that put away that
wife, that she could never be his bride again because she's
defiled. But now would you look at this,
hold your place there in Hosea and go to Jeremiah 3. I just
want you to see this. Jeremiah here, the Lord's quoting
from that law of Moses. Now look at what he says. Jeremiah
3.1 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 hast played the harlot
with many lovers. yet return again to me, saith
the Lord." Look at verse 12. Go, proclaim these words to the
Lord. Go preach this to my people.
And say, return thou backsliding Israel, and saith the Lord, and
I will not cause my anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful,
saith the Lord. I will not keep anger forever,
only acknowledge thine iniquity. that thou has transgressed against
the Lord thy God, and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under
evergreen tree, and you've not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I'm married
unto you. And I'll take you one of a city,
and two of a family, and I'll bring you to Zion, and I will
give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. That tells you where Zion is,
don't it? He's going to give you pastors that's going to feed
you with knowledge and understanding. I'll bring you to Zion and I'll
give you pastors that'll feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Zion's a church. I'm going to bring you into my
church and I'm going to give you pastors that'll feed you.
Now look back at Hosea. So Christ made that gospel proclamation
effectual in our hearts. He made that very word right
there that he said go proclaim this. He made that effectual
in our hearts when we heard the gospel. And He called us to Himself,
and this is what He said to us, Hosea 3.3, Thou shalt abide for
Me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. And hadn't that been the way
it is? When He discovered to you your lewdness and showed
you, you deserve none of His mercy. You're just an adulterer.
And then He said, but I've had mercy on you. From that day forward,
I became His. And He became mine. Alright,
let's end this. Look over at Ephesians 4 with
me. Ephesians chapter 4. Now Christ said this. Christ
said that it's lawful to put away a spouse for fornication.
You can do that. It's lawful before God. And it
would have been lawful for God to put you away too. Sure would
have. But He didn't, did He? He didn't,
did He? Yet God forgave us of all our
infidelity toward Him in Christ, in our faithful, unchanging,
unchangeable, loving husband. And so rather than putting away
a spouse, rather than putting away a spouse for fornication,
rather than putting away your brethren because they divorced.
Oh boy, how many times has that happened? I don't have nothing
to do with them, they divorced. Rather than putting them away,
rather than putting away your spouse for fornication, go back
and think about who you are and what God's done for you. And
rather than put them away, this is what God says do. Ephesians
4.31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Put that
away instead. Put that away. And be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Now you think about
it. Your spouse committed fornication
with somebody else. Preacher, I don't know if I can
forgive that. That would be hard. That would hurt. That would be
betrayal. I don't know if I can forgive
that. Well, now you know something about what your sin is to God.
And you know something about the greatness of His forgiveness
of that sin because of Christ's blood. So believers, submit yourself
to Christ our Husband in faithfulness. In faithfulness. And wives, as
the church is subject to Christ, submit yourselves to your husbands
as unto the Lord. And husbands, love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church gave Himself for it. And let us all forgive one another,
even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren.