Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. We've been going through the
book of Matthew and last Sunday morning we looked at the first
two verses of chapter 19 which say, and it came to pass that
when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee
and came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan and great multitudes
followed him and he healed them there. And what a wonderful announcement
that is. This morning, we're gonna pick
up with verse three. It says, 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? 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 father and mother and shall cleave to
his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they
are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together let not man put asunder. They say unto him, why did Moses
then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her
away? 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. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery,
and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If
the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he saith unto them, All men
cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For
there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's
womb, and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men,
and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it,
let him receive it." It says the Pharisees came to him asking,
is it lawful to divorce? Is it lawful to And I just want
to point out that every time the Pharisees came to him, the
conversation was always about the law. I just want to acknowledge
that, okay? Every time the Pharisees came
to him, the conversation was always about the law. That's
how you can spot a Pharisee. They constantly want to turn
the conversation to the law. Constantly. And that's what the
Pharisees did here. They asked the Lord, is it lawful
for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And it says, in their asking
him this, they were tempting him. And they always did. It
always says that, doesn't it? They were tempting him. That
means they were testing him. They were examining him. They
were trying to see if they could trip him up into admitting that the grace that he preached
was a violation of the law. I'm going to repeat that. Okay. They came asking about the law.
What about the law? But let's talk about the law.
And every time they did that, they were tempting him. They
were testing him. They were trying to see if they
could trip him up into admitting that the grace that he preached,
the free and sovereign grace that he preached, was a violation
of the law. Is that registered with everybody?
Isn't that what everybody thinks? Well, then you have to, that's
a violation of the law. Free grace. All right? So they asked him, is it lawful
for a man to divorce his wife for every cause? And he answered
them by saying, What does the Word of God say about it? And
that's the answer every time. Anytime somebody comes with a
question like this, that's the answer every time. What does
the Word of God say about it? Verse three, 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? 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 father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they
are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. He said, God said they are one
flesh. And God said, whatever he joined
together, let not man put asunder. Now I'm going to tell you this,
okay? Not only did he answer them according to the law right
there, he answered them according to the gospel. He answered them according to
the gospel. Hopefully we'll see that here in just a second. Verse
4, 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 father and mother, and
shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say
unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of
divorcement and to put her away? The Pharisees said, if what you're
saying is so, why does Deuteronomy 24 verse one say, when a man
hath taken a wife and married her, And it come to pass that
she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness
in her. Then let him write her a bill
of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of
his house." If what you're saying is so, why does Deuteronomy 24
say that? That's what they're asking him.
Verse 8, He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness
of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives. He said in mercy, in kindness,
in love, in grace, the Spirit of God inspired Moses to write
that because of the evil hardness of your wicked, sinful hearts. Men, you know, Thought they weren't
allowed to separate from their wives. What God puts together,
let not man put asunder. And, you know, till death do
they part. And God forbid they should be
unfavorable in God's eyes, so this is what they did instead
of divorcing their wives. They beat them and they murdered
them. That's what men were doing. And that wickedness was no surprise
to God. He knew the wickedness of man
would be great. You say, how do you know that?
How do you know God knew that man's sin would just grow and
thrive? Here's how. It's because in the
purpose of God, He provided a lamb slain for sinners before He ever
created a world that would eventually be filled with sinners. Before
there was ever one sin in this world, God provided a lamb slain
for sin. He knew Christ was the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. So this wickedness was
no surprise to God and that's why he allowed and inspired Moses
to put that in his law. The end of verse eight, he said,
but from the beginning, it was not so. When God made Adam and
Eve in their sinless state, There was no need for a writing of
divorcement. There was no need for a law. They were sinless. But the Lord said, to answer
your question, can a man divorce his wife for any reason? Verse
nine, I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication and shall marry another, commit adultery,
and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery."
And this applies both ways. If the man does this, then the
woman has the right to stay with the wording of the scripture
right here, okay? He said, if the wife is unfaithful to the
man. Now, let me just go ahead, I'm
about to tell you anyway, so right now, put your spiritual
thinking cap on, okay? See if you can enter into this
spiritually. If the wife is unfaithful to the man and cheats on the
man and leaves their union for another love, if she plays the harlot, if she
commits whoredoms, he can. He has every right to. And to that Word of God right
there, I'll also mention another Word from God in 1 Corinthians
7 verse 15. It says, if one of the members
of this union of marriage leaves, abandons, runs off and doesn't
come back, doesn't have a heart to come back, the other one has
the right to divorce. The other one has the right to
divorce. Deuteronomy 24 doesn't give the man the right. That's
just a mercy ruling for women. But if a woman commits fornication
with another or if she leaves and has no heart to come back,
the man has every right to divorce her. That's the law. You want
to hear the gospel? All right. That's the law. Here's the gospel. See if you
can find the book of Hosea. If your Bible is like mine, it's
page 1126 in the Old Testament. It's after Isaiah, Jeremiah,
it's after Ezekiel, after Daniel, Hosea. In this book, this man named
Hosea, Osia, Joshua, the New Testament name for that is Jesus. This man, Hosea, represents the
Lord Jesus Christ, okay? And this woman in this story
named Gomer represents me and you, the chosen bride of Christ. Hosea chapter one, look at verse
two, it says, The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea, again that's Christ. And the Lord said to
Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms. And children of
whoredoms, for the land hath committed great whoredom departing
from the Lord. He said this is, you go take
this wife because my people have departed from me. So he went
and took this woman, Gomer, this woman of whoredoms, this filthy
woman of fornication. And it says in here, he married
her and had children with her. And what did she do? She kept
on committing her fornication. She kept on giving herself to
her other loves, thinking that they were the ones supplying
her with the things that she needed. Look at chapter two,
verse two. It says, plead with your mother,
plead for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Meaning
she doesn't want to be my wife and doesn't want me to be her
husband. Verse five. for their mother
hath played the harlot she hath conceived them she that conceived
them hath done shamefully for she said I will go after my lovers
and that gives me my bread and my water my wool and my flax
mine oil and my drink verse 8 For she did not know that I gave
her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and
gold, which they prepared for Baal. She didn't know. All that time she was out in
all of her wickedness, I was the one taking care of her and
providing for her. And he said right here in all
of this, if you read it sometime, you'll see, he said, I have every
right to deal harshly with her. But he said, this is what I'm
gonna do, verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure
her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence in the valley of
Acre for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in
the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out
of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day,
saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Isha, that means my husband,
and shalt call me no more Beali, which means my Lord. He said,
you're going to call me my husband instead of my Lord. or I will
take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth and they shall
no more be remembered by their name. And in that day, will I
make a covenant for them with the beast of the field and with
the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground.
And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out
of the earth and we'll make them to lie down safely. I'm going
to create peace. And I will betroth thee unto
me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in
mercies. See, I keep saying I will, I
will. Verse 20, I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.
and thou shalt know the Lord, and it shall come to pass in
that day I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens,
and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the
corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.
And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy
upon her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to them
which were not my people, Thou art my people, and they shall
say, Thou art my God. He said, even though you've done
nothing but break the covenant of our marriage and strayed to
your fornications and abandoned me in your heart, left me with
no desire to come back. Isn't that man in his natural
condition before God? Isn't that what we are by nature?
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. He said, even though you have
done all that, he said, I will never leave you. I will never
forsake you. Never. I have loved you with
an everlasting love, and I will love you with an everlasting
love. I'll love you to the end. That's what he said to us. Greater
love has no man than the love I have for you. THE SCRIPTURE
SAYS OUR MAKER IS OUR HUSBAND, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, AND THAT'S
HIS PROMISE OF FAITHFULNESS TO US IN SPITE OF OUR UNFAITHFULNESS
TO HIM. HE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO DIVORCE
US. ALRIGHT, NOW HERE, JUST LISTEN TO THIS. HE HAS EVERY, ACCORDING
TO HIS OWN LAW, Based on what we've done spiritually, he has
every right to divorce us. He would be just and right in
divorcing us. But the love that he has in his
heart for his bride will not do it. Thank God the grace and
the mercy and the compassion that he has in his heart will
not do it. Romans 5 verse 8 says, God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Love held him on that tree. Love
made him take all of the wicked whoredoms of his wife. And this
is what Christ accomplished on the cross. All of the wicked
spiritual whoredoms of his wife. All of her sin. He took every
bit of it. He took the guilt of it. He took
the shame of it. He took the blame of it. He took
all of it from her and he laid it on himself and he suffered
the harsh punishment of God because of it and he set his wife free. That's what he did. He set his
wife free. Now that's love. That's love. After our Lord said what he did
about divorce in our text, His disciples said to him, it sounds
like it'd be better for a man to just stay single. And the Lord said, some men have
been given to that. Some have been made to be eunuchs
and given to a life of no wife, no ability to conceive children
and things like that. Thank God our Lord was not one
of those men. Thank God he was given to a bride
and a bride was given to him. And thank God because he could
swear by no greater, he swore by himself that he would never
divorce us. He will never divorce us. Now,
in closing, let me leave you with this, all right? I really
want to say this to you. I know that many people on this
earth And many people who are brothers and sisters in Christ
have gone through divorce. I know that. And what I want to say to you
is. I'm sorry. I'm sincerely sorry. I'm very sorry that you had to
go through an experience that led you to divorce. I'm so sorry. I know that divorce is devastating. It's devastating to the two people
who are going through the divorce. It's devastating when children
are involved. It's so devastating on a family. It's devastating to a church
family. It's devastating to an extended
family. It's devastating to friends.
It's just so devastating. Everything about it is devastating.
And to anyone who has been through it, I'm sorry. If anyone is thinking
about getting a divorce, I would say, if at all possible, don't
do it. Don't do it. Spare yourself the
heartache. It is not going to make life
easier. It's not going to make life easier. It's going to be
devastating. If there's any way that it can be avoided, don't
do it. Sometimes it can't be avoided.
Sometimes it cannot be avoided if a husband is abusing his wife. And I'm just going to use the
word beating his wife. Ladies, that can't be avoided.
Get out. That just can't be avoided. If a man is beating his wife,
may God beat that man, and he will. And I'm sorry for being
so honest, but that's how I feel about it. It happens all the
time, because men are men. And a man who does that is not
a man. But nonetheless, sometimes these
things can't be avoided. And I'm glad that you girls listened
to me. I'm glad y'all are in here this
morning. This scripture tells us, this scripture says, wives
submit to your husbands. And a woman standing there allowing
a man to beat on her is not what God is talking about. Get out. Get out. There are times when
it cannot be avoided. And you know, anytime this is
even a consideration, everyone, everyone says, I don't know if
God wants me to get a divorce. God doesn't like divorce. Well,
Moses wrote Deuteronomy 24 verse one is a mercy ruling for situations
like that. Get out. Sometimes it cannot be avoided,
but if it can be avoided, if it can be avoided, just pray
that God will bring love back. Just pray that the love that
God put in there at first, He'll bring it back. Pray that God
will bring reconciliation back. Pray that God will bring respect
back. Pray that God, for Christ's sake,
will give you a heart for your marriage, the same heart that
Christ had for His marriage. People say marriage is give and
take. That is not true. Marriage is give and give. And
when both parties are giving and giving, Everything's wonderful. But for those who have been through
a divorce, I know that anytime this subject comes up, men and
women are all ears trying to find out, am I okay with God?
I've done this. I've been through this. What
does this mean for me? Well, here's the true answer
to that. According to this word, if you have been through a divorce,
you know, our Lord said, save for fornication. If you have
been through a divorce, you are a sinner against God. OK. And according to this word, if
you have not been through a divorce, you are a sinner against God. If you have been through a divorce,
you are a sinner against God who has been through a divorce.
And if you have not been through a divorce, you are a sinner against
God who has not been through a divorce. So you're saying divorce is okay.
No, I'm saying outside of Christ, none of us are okay. The only hope for all of us,
divorced or not divorced, is look to Christ. That's the only
hope for all of us. Sometimes we get these pet sins.
We'll just select a pet sin and we'll say, well, at least I hadn't
done that now. You can't pin that on me. Not so, not according
to the heart, not according to the mind and the heart. But we'll
point the finger at one sin and commit a hundred of them in the
process. So if you have been through a
divorce, cast yourself on the mercy of Jesus Christ. And if
you are considering divorce, cast yourself on the mercy of
Jesus Christ. And if you're lifted up with
pride because divorce has never come anywhere near you, cast
yourself on the mercy of Jesus Christ. Let's all just look to Christ,
okay? Let's all hope in his faithfulness. This is the only thing all of
us have, his faithfulness. His promise, his covenant, his
faithfulness. Honestly, if God would let us
really get a hold of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, that's all the
motivation we need for our own faithfulness in our own marriages. That's all the motivation we
need. So I pray God will give us that. I pray that he'll let
us look to Christ and dwell on his faithfulness and give us
love and keep us all together. I pray he'll keep us all together
for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.