First Corinthians 7. Two weeks
ago, in our Bible study, we looked at the subject of divorce. Divorce. And our text was verses
10 and 11, which say, 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. Paul is quoting our Lord when
he said in Matthew 5 32, except for fornication, except for fornication,
if a man puts away his wife and remarries, then he's committing
adultery. The one that he marries, he's
causing that person to commit adultery and he's causing his
wife and the one she marries to commit adultery. So he says
in verse 11, but, and if she depart, let her remain unmarried
or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away
his wife. It goes both ways. Both ways,
wives and husbands. Now before we move on, let me
show you what our Lord said in Mark chapter 10. Go with me over
to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 verse 2 says, and the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting
him? And he answered and said unto
them, 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." That word hardness means violent. That's what the word means. Because
of your violence, physical abuse, He wrote you this precept. But
from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall
be one flesh, so then they are no more twain but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples
asked him again of the same matter." The Pharisees asked him and then
they went into this house and all his disciples asked him the
same thing again. Verse 11, And he said unto them, Whosoever
shall 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. So our Lord is very clear on
this subject, isn't He? He's very, very clear on this.
Now go with me back to 1 Corinthians 7. Verse 12 says, but to the rest
speak I, not the Lord. To the rest speak I, not the
Lord. Now we explained this back in
verse six, when we were back in verse six said, but I speak
this by permission and not of commandment. Verse 12 he said,
but to the rest speak I, not the Lord. Verse 25, he said,
now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord. I
don't have a commandment of the Lord for any of us who were not
here or any of us who forgot. First, second, Peter one 20 says
no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,
not one verse. Not one verse of Scripture is
man's opinion. Every single word is the Word
of God. And I say that with this. There
are some words in this Bible that don't mean what we think
they mean. So we have a concordance and we look them up. And with
that concordance, you know, we might see one word and I'll say
that word means this. But with that being said, this
is the Word of God. This is not Paul's opinion. The next verse,
2 Peter 1.21 says, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. So when Paul says, I don't have
a commandment, what he's saying is a scripture has not yet been
written. There's no place for us to turn
that I can show you this, but we have it now. We have it now. God moved him and now this is
our commandment. Verse 12, 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 the woman which hath an husband
that believeth not, if he be pleased to dwell with her, Let
her not leave him." Again, he's not saying this is just my opinion.
For whatever it's worth, take it or leave it. This is the commandment
of God Almighty, the inspired word of God. If any brother hath
a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with
him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband
that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her,
let her not leave him. Now turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 says,
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them. and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,
and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. When a true believer, someone
who truly loves Christ, when a true believer is married to
a true unbeliever, It brings hardships and it brings difficulties
to everything. Everything. There is a struggle
attached to everything. And the reason is because there's
a different desire. There is a different heart. There's a
different motive. They're totally different. There's
a struggle in worshiping God. There is a struggle in giving
to support his ministry. There is a struggle in how you
spend your off time. There is a struggle in what friends
you hang out with. There's a struggle in everything.
Our Lord said it's not good to be unequally yoked. So if a believer
is not married to an unbeliever, Our Lord said in verse 17, come
out from among them and be separate. Come out and be separate. It is so important that we teach
our children how vital it is that they be a believer and marry
a believer. It is so important. It is so
important. The Lord has used believers to
bring unbelievers, and the Lord's opened their eyes. And that's
wonderful. But before we make that commitment,
let's make sure that we believe in our heart. The Lord's shown
some light to them. It's so important. Be believers,
marry believers, and come out from among the world and surround
themselves with other believers for fellowship, for communion
in the gospel. But back over in our text in
1 Corinthians 7, our Lord said through the Apostle Paul here,
if a believer and an unbeliever are married, they might have
both been unbelievers when they got married and then God had
mercy on one of them, opened their eyes. For whatever the
reason, if a believer and an unbeliever are married, let him
not put her away and let her not leave him. Verse 14 says,
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 are they holy." That does not mean
that they're actually sanctified and holy. Only the blood of Christ
can do that. Only Christ Only being in Christ
sets a person apart. Only being in Christ makes a
person clean and right and pure and holy. But with every believer,
I'm sorry, every unbeliever, with every unbeliever that approaches
the throne of judgment, okay, unbelievers, they're going to
go meet God, they're going to walk up to that throne of judgment,
and to every one of them, God is going to say, I never knew
you. That's what he's going to say
to him. I never knew you. I never thought on you. I never
looked on you. I never acknowledged you. That's
terrible, isn't it? We enter into the covenant of
marriage because our Lord told us to and we want to do what's
right in his eyes. But unbelievers are not in his
eyes. He sees all. He sees all, but
everything they do is illegitimate to Him. It's illegitimate. Even their children are illegitimate
to Him, as though they were born out of wedlock. But He's saying,
you stay together. He's saying, stay together. If
a believer is married to an unbeliever, stay together. Because even though
one of you is an unbeliever, I recognize your marriage. Isn't
that wonderful? I recognize the unbelieving husband
for the sake of the believing wife, my own. I do it for her
sake. And I recognize the unbelieving
wife for the sake of the believing husband, my own. I do it for
his sake. I recognize them. And your children are legitimate. Even though one's an unbeliever,
your children are legitimate in my eyes. Verse 14, 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 are they holy. Verse 15 says, But if the unbelieving
depart, if they're willing to stay, don't leave them. But if
the unbelieving depart, let him depart. Let him depart. He did not say,
if the unbelieving depart, then you immediately go down and file
your papers. He said, if he depart, let him
depart. Let him divorce you. If he wants
to go, then let him divorce you. Now the context right here, this
is so important, this is so important. The context right here is believer
and unbeliever. That's what he's talking about.
Believer and unbeliever. And if the unbeliever departs
because of the gospel, because of the gospel. If he says either
you leave that church or I'm leaving you. Either you deny
Christ or I'm denying you. Stay true to the gospel. Stay
true to the word, to the Lord of glory, and if he departs,
let him go. Verse 15 says, a brother or sister
is not under bondage in such cases. Bondage to what? Adultery. Sin, this whole thing started
by saying, our Lord said, except for fornication, it's adultery,
didn't he? You know, he's the one that wants to leave me. All
right. So when he does now, he causes
me to commit adultery. But he's saying you're not under
that. If the unbelieving depart because he does not believe,
if it's over the gospel of Christ, let him or her go. You're not
under bondage. You're free to remarry in such
cases. But this is what he said at the
end of that verse. He said, God hath called us to peace. God hath called us to peace.
Try to do everything that's in your power to make peace. Try to do everything that's in
your power. Forgive, forget, reconcile, try
to stay together. Try to stay together. Verse 16
says, for what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save
thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether
thou shalt save thy wife? If there's going to be a divorce,
let it be on them. Let it be on them. You stay as
long as you can. Who knows whether God will let
them get out there just far enough to break them. To break them. Break the heart,
bow their knee, bend their head, strike fear into them. Give them
a love for Christ, really. Give my heart for you, a love
for you. Who knows whether God has purposed
in the end for love to reign. You go through a situation like
this and I just can't imagine. You know, a person says it's
just been so difficult. He or she has hated me, despised
me, rejected me, treated me cruelly, mocked me, humiliated me, laughed
me to scorn. Why should I stay? Everybody
here knows the answer. Look to the cross. Why should
I do that? Why should I stay? Look to the
cross. Look to the cross. Do you know
who Christ was hanging there for? His wife. Only his wife. Only his wife. He hung there only for his wife. That's it. He came into this
world. His own wife rejected him. That means you and me. That's what it means. We despised
him. We humiliated him. We hated him. Thank God Almighty he didn't
walk out on us. He didn't walk out on us. He loved us till the end. He
had every right legally to leave us for our violence. We all cried
crucify him, beat him, spit on him, curse him. He had every
right to leave us for our spiritual fornication. This heart right
here lusts after and covets everything this world has to offer. Everything. But our precious husband said,
in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, leaving
all others, I cleave to you and you alone. I will never, no never,
no never forsake. Don't you love that? I'm Gomer
and Gomer gets to hear I'll never, no never, even though you did
it again, no never forsake. In the end, our Lord's faithfulness
and his commitment saved his wife. That's the only thing that
saved us. It was his faithfulness, his
commitment. That's the only thing that saved
me. Now, she loves him. You know, he made his enemies
his footstool. He made those that absolutely
hated everything about him want nothing more than to just come
and sit right there at his feet. She loves him. And she's going
to spend the rest of her day saying, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. Please forgive
me. Can I just be near you? She don't
want anything to do with me. She does now. Could I please
just sit by you? Would you just talk to me? All
I want is you. She ran after everything. Not
anymore. All I want is you. Our God has
called us to peace. If there is unbelieving trouble
in the house, bring it before him and then wait on him. Bring it before Him and wait
on Him. Don't take matters into your
own hands. Don't take matters into your
own hands. Wait on the Lord and again I
say, wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. Alright,
you're dismissed.