Father, we thank you for the
Lord Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to earth, was born as
a baby, grew up as a man, made himself a servant and humbled
himself, laid aside all that appeared to be God, that he might
take our case, be made under the law, bear our sin as his
own, bear the curse for it, and then rise in triumph victory
over all of our enemies and redeeming us from the curse of the law,
the law itself and its demands, our own sin and the death we
deserve, the bondage we have to Satan, the darkness of our
minds and the faith that we need, all given to us by his reigning
rule and interceding greatness for us. Thank you, Lord, for
Jesus. And Lord, we pray that as he opens his mouth here in
this scripture, you would give us ears to hear, give us that
faith that we can only have by hearing your word, and help us
to see our Lord great as he is in your eyes. So make him so
in ours. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, Matthew 19 is where we are. We're going to be reading the
first 15 verses. Although today I want to restrict
the sermon to the first 10. And next week I hope to pick
up the last verses 11 through 15. But before we read that,
I want to give you the context of this sermon. And I think having
the context of the sermon helps us understand the entire sermon
much better than it had otherwise. I struggle sometimes to understand
a particular text of Scripture. And a lot of times, if you just
jump into a passage of Scripture, you say, yeah, I want to understand
what does God teach about divorce, marriage, and all these things.
You look in your concordance, you find the word divorce or
marriage, and you jump into that verse, and you read that verse,
and maybe a few after that, and you go away, and you have a picture
in your mind of what the Lord thinks about it, and you've missed
so much by doing that. Unfortunately, a lot of Bible
study happens that way. And for that reason, I'm really
thankful that we've been going through the book of Matthew in
sequence here, because otherwise we would miss a lot. So what
was in Matthew 18 preceding this? We could start from the first
part of Matthew and go through, but we're not going to. If you
remember, the first part of Matthew had to do with little children. Jesus told the disciples, unless
you're converted and become as a little child, you can't enter
heaven. And then He sat the child in
their midst and explained that to them and warned them, or encouraged
them, first of all, if you receive one of these little ones, you've
received Me. One of these little ones who believe in Me, you've
received Me. And we learn from that text of Scripture that all
who believe Christ are called His little ones. It turns out
in the Scripture The Lord refers to His people as His children
more than by any other name. They're called the children of
God, the little children. They're the ones who believe
in Him. Children of your Father. Children of the Living God. Children
of the Bride Chamber. Children of the Day and the Light.
Children of the Highest, His dear children. Children of the
Elect Lady. Children which God has given
me, the children of adoption, and the children that justified
Him, who was wise. The children of wisdom, who justify
wisdom by what they do. So, God speaks about His children
in many different ways in Scripture. And the fact that Christ views
all and every believer as His little child teaches us how we
are to receive one another. Think about if the Lord Jesus
Christ brought some children to you and said, would you take
care of these, my children? Wouldn't you have a much more
intent interest in them just because, whose they were, I would."
And that's the way he tells us here. Don't neglect, I mean don't
think of these as anything other than his children, his little
ones. And then he gave a grave warning
to all who would attempt to draw away the faith of these little
ones from him. And that's what we see in the
first part of Matthew 18. And then in the second half of
that chapter, we saw this great focus He gave on the forgiveness
of sins, how we're to forgive one another. Now with those two
things in view, we enter into Matthew 19. And the first thing
we see here is that there's a great multitude that come to Jesus.
So think of this. Here's the Lord Jesus. A great
multitude comes to Him. And He heals them. And then the
Pharisees come. The Pharisees come and what do
they do? Immediately they tempt Christ
by asking Him a question. In other words, their intention
is to drive a wedge between Him and these people. and His disciples. But that's exactly what Jesus
warned against in the previous chapter, wasn't it? So here we
have a great multitude, we have the enemies of Christ, those
who hate Him, and our They're interested in separating the
little ones from Him. So we see the enemy there. And
then they ask this question. And it seems like, like all those
who hate the Gospel, they're interested in asking questions
to divert the attention away from the Gospel. Away from Christ.
And that's what the enemy does. Let's think about other things
that we don't talk about so much. We need to talk about this thing
of marriage and divorce. What do you think about that?
What do you think about divorce anyway? And gets people all wrapped
around the axle about something like this and into the details
of it from a legal standpoint. And so they were asking him,
from, what do you think about divorce? Can a man put away his
wife for every cause? And he opened up the scripture
to them and explained, not the, he did answer the legality of
it, but he did it in a way that shows something about this entire
passage here, that Christ is taking the role as guardian over
His little ones. The great multitude comes to
Him, these little ones that the Pharisees are attacking, and
He speaks to them about marriage and divorce. They asked Him about
divorce, He opened up the subject. And corrected them first by starting
and explaining what marriage actually is. And then he talked
about divorce. And then he goes on in the next
part and he talks about celibacy. People who were eunuchs. Either
they were eunuchs from birth, or other men made them eunuchs,
or they made themselves eunuchs. Because the disciples would ask,
well if marriage is so restrictive, then why does a man ever get
married? Why get married at all? So he
talks about celibacy. And then he speaks about little
children who were brought to him. The disciples didn't want
them to come. They rebuked the parents who
brought them. But he said, no, no, no. Suffer, allow, put up
with them. Be patient with them and allow
the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom
of God." So you see in this, now I've given you a big overview,
you see in here a great multitude. You see the enemies of Christ
in the gospel. You see him speaking about marriage.
And divorce. And then you see those who were
celibate. Those who made themselves celibate
for the kingdom of God's sake. And you see little children again.
All of this speaks about the kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the husband of the bride. He's the one who married
his people. The great multitude come to Him,
diseased, and He heals them. And He's the one who heals His
bride. He washes them from their sins.
He Himself is taking their sins from them. And you see that He's
protecting them against the enemy. Those who would attack Him and
try to drive a wedge between Him and the little ones. He protects
them. He unfolds the scripture. Not
in a legal sense, though He does answer it. according to the written
word, but he answers it more towards the heart of what God
is saying. What does God think in the matter? And then, having
done that, he explains that there are those who make themselves,
for the kingdom of God's sake, without a husband. I mean, without
a wife. And think about the Apostle Paul
when you think about that. He didn't have a wife and what
was his goal? It was to bring Christ's people
to the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist, I must decrease,
he must increase. The friend of the bridegroom
stands by and he rejoices to hear the bridegroom's voice that
the bride hears the voice of the bridegroom. So here we have
a celibate person, the servant of the husband. standing by,
taking care, and bringing the bride to the husband. And then
the husband, in his wisdom, opening the heart of God, showing what
marriage is about, and what God thinks about divorce. And then,
immediately following that, we see the parents bringing their
children to Christ. So we see in the Gospel, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the husband of His people, Because of His
resurrection, having conquered sin and death and their enemies,
draws them out of all nations under heaven to bring them to
Himself through the preaching of the gospel. So can you see
that? Here the great multitude is. So I'm going to read this
with you. I'm giving you this overview at the outset so we
don't lose our place. Look at this in verse 1, and
think about what came before this. The little ones, precious
to Christ, those that He says, you must be like these, don't
elevate yourself above your brother and sister in Christ. It's not
about you, it's about Christ. And then He says, and don't forget,
490 times plus a day, forgive those who offend you because
that's the heart of your of your Savior, the heart of your Father.
And he says in verse 1 here of chapter 19, 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, the outskirts
of the nation of Israel beyond Jordan, the coast of Judea, on
the edges of Judea. And great multitudes followed
Him, and He healed them there. See that? He healed them there. Great multitudes. There were
5,000 men plus women and children that He fed with bread and He
called them a great multitude. And in another case, 4,000 men
plus the women and children. So here we have a number of people
about the size of the city that I live in. Think about the entire
city coming out to hear the Lord Jesus Christ. And they came to
Him with their sick. They themselves were sick. Some
couldn't get there by themselves. Some had to be brought. Some
came. But they all had to come to Christ in order to be healed
of their diseases. Sin is a disease. Sin is a disease
and there's only one physician who can heal a man of his sin-sick
soul. 1 Peter 2.24 says, Who, speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who his own self, bear our sins in
his own body up to the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
might live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed."
The healing of our souls has everything to do with sin. Isaiah
53-4. Why don't you turn to Isaiah
53-4. with me, and we'll look at that.
There's a couple of words in there that I want you to see.
It's not translated this way in the King James, but this is
the way the words mean. In Isaiah 53, verse 4 it says,
"...surely he hath borne our griefs." And the word griefs
is the word translated diseases in scripture. "...and he carried
our sorrows." You know what sickness does to you? It makes you sorry.
All the shame and the concern and the physical discomfort and
everything to do with sickness. The despair of sickness. "...he
bore our sorrows." Yet we did esteem him stricken and smitten
of God." And the word stricken is the same word as plagued.
Solomon said in 1 Kings 8, 38, he says, "...when any man prays
toward this temple and understands the plague of his own heart,
then hear thou in heaven and forgive." The plague of his own
heart. Jesus, according to this word,
stricken of God, was plagued of God. He owned the sins of
His people as His. He took them. He bore them. He
felt the pain of them. The shame and the guilt. In His
own self, according to 1 Peter 2.24, He, His own self, bear
our sins in His own body on the tree. That we, it's a substitution,
that we, being dead to sins, might live unto righteousness.
But this great multitude comes to Jesus here. And what do they
do? They come with all of their diseases,
and they bring those who are sick to Christ. And they come
to Him, and they present themselves before Him, and they have nothing
to do except to ask Him, Lord, do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. Heal our sin sick souls. Until
we're brought, as Solomon said, to the point where we understand
the plague of our heart and our sin, our sin, becomes the problem
that we have between us and God. And we come to Christ and we
look to Him. as the only physician who can
heal us. And understand that the only
way our physician could heal us is if he himself took our
disease and was plagued of God. And the wrath of God was poured
out upon him so that by his stripes we are healed. And then we look
to him and we come to him and say, Lord, you have made atonement
for sin. It's by this that we are healed. And so they came to him. And
in simple faith, they just left it there with Him. The Lord healed
them. He didn't leave them in suspense.
Will He or will He not? He healed them. Great multitudes
followed Him. And He healed them there. At
that time, He healed them there. And that's what Christ does.
He heals all who are coming to Him with a plague in their heart,
diseased by sin, and He heals them there. This is opening up
here to our as the context in which the Lord
Jesus Christ talks to the Pharisees and answers them. A great multitude
diseased, Christ heals them. These are the ones that He's
speaking to about what comes next. And then it says in verse
3, The Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him. And saying
to him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every
cause? Is it lawful for a man to put
away his wife for every cause? The Pharisees were interested
in what the law said. There's nothing wrong with being
interested in what the law says. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets. I didn't come
to destroy but to fulfill. The law is good. The law is right.
But there's something about this that isn't good. And that's what
I want you to hold that thought. Because then the Lord says, well
they ask, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every
cause? Now that comes from Deuteronomy
chapter 24. And if you want to turn there, you can. Deuteronomy
chapter 24. I'll read that, the first four
verses. Because this is the law. Moses gave to Israel. It's interesting. Moses gave
this to Israel, and of course it was a law that God gave. And we're going to read it. Verse
1. And it come to pass that she finds 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 into her hand, and send her
out of his house. And when she is departed out
of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. And if
the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement,
and giveth it into her hand, and send her out of his house,
or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife,
her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again
to be his wife, after that she is defiled. For that is abomination
before the Lord. For thou shalt not cause the
land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
It's very straightforward. The Lord said, if you have a
wife and she doesn't please you because you find something in
her that's unclean. You say, things are not going
well here between us. Whatever is about you that I
find that's unclean, it's irritating me. I'm going to divorce you.
He writes her a bill of divorcement. He gives it to her. She goes
out. Now that she's out, Not his wife anymore. She finds another
man and she marries him. And then perhaps later he divorces
her or he dies. She can't go back and be that
first husband's wife again. That was the law. That's what
the Pharisees are referring to here. Is it lawful for a man
to put away his wife for every cause? And then in Matthew 19,
when Jesus answered them, He said this, they asked about Moses'
law. And the Lord Jesus is the Word
of God. He is the one who is the revelation
of God. He is the interpreter of God's
Word. He is the fulfillment of God's
Word. He is the authority of it. He's everything that has
to do with God's Word. And so He now answers them. And
He says, 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 two,
or twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder." Now that's what they should have
been thinking about. They ask about divorce. Can I
divorce my wife for every cause? Why would the Pharisees ask such
a question? Were they really interested in
knowing the truth about marriage and divorce? Of course not. But
they thought, if we can ask Jesus a question, And he answers it
in such a way that the people say, he's so strict. How can
we possibly live under his law? And they would get discouraged.
And they would be concerned that not only did they know themselves
to be sinners, but now the bar was raised so high that there
was no hope. And so they would leave. Or if he said, no, no. What Moses said is too restrictive. It's less than that. It's okay.
You can get divorced for every cause. Then they would think,
aha, he's lenient. And if he's lenient, he's not
agreeing with scripture, not agreeing with God's law, not
interested in God's holiness. He can't be true. So they would
begin to cast doubt in the minds of these people that the Lord
Jesus Christ was truly sent of God. That what He said was actually
the truth. If they couldn't trust Him, everything
crumbled and fell apart. And that is exactly what Jesus
was warning in Matthew 18 when He says, Woe unto you that caused
one of these little ones to stumble. It would be better for that man
if he had a millstone tied about his neck and he were cast into
the deep part of the sea. Or then he goes off and he says,
later in Matthew 18, he says, it's better to enter into life,
halt or maim. Cut off your hand or cut off
your foot if it offends you and causes one of these little ones
to stumble. In other words, what the Pharisees were doing here
was their intention was just like the devil. If I can find
something to introduce doubt into the minds of one of God's
believers, so that they turn away from Christ, then I've achieved
my goal. I've separated them from their
husband, and the children from the one who is to care for them."
And that was the thing that they were interested or intending
to do here. But Jesus corrects them by giving
the truth You know the old adage, it's better to understand what
a true hundred dollar bill looks like than to know what a counterfeit
could look like because if you understand the true then you're
more easily able to identify the false. Here, Christ gives
them the truth. He opens to them the truth about
marriage. In Genesis 127, God says, let
us make man, singular, in our own image, and he made them male
and female. Created them male and female.
He created them. Look at that in Genesis chapter
127. I just want to say it exactly
like it's written. Because I want to emphasize something
there. Genesis 127. So God created man
in His own image. In the image of God created He,
Him. male and female created he them. You see that? So in
Genesis, which Jesus quotes, to explain marriage, he says
God, in the beginning, created man male and female. He made male and female for a
purpose. Because as male and female, He
wanted man, that He created, to be married. A man and a woman,
because in that marriage, that was the man that He was viewing. God created man, one woman, one
man, as one. So that when He speaks about
them, He speaks about them as one. He treats them as one. This
is what our Lord Jesus Christ did. He's the man. Adam was created
by God as the head over the human race. When Eve took the fruit
and ate and sinned against God, it was not imputed to all of
her children. She had none. But when Adam sinned,
His sin was counted to all who were born to Him, all who were
in Him. We became guilty when He sinned, because He was the
head of that race. And so God created man, male
and female. And He did this, according to
the Lord Jesus, because male and female can be joined together
in union. And that union means they're
one flesh. And that union of flesh represents
the union of the Lord Jesus Christ with his people, the Church of
God. Christ is one with them in a legal sense. God looks upon
all of those with Christ as being one with Him. Whatever they did
is imputed to Him. He becomes guilty for their sins. Whatever He does, His obedience
becomes their righteousness. His sufferings under the law
becomes their curse bearing. Everything that He did is theirs
and everything they did becomes His because God sees them as
one. So it's a legal union that was established by God's everlasting
love and eternal choice of His people in Christ. But it's also
a physical union. It's a union where Christ became
one with them in His nature. And it's a union where He becomes
one with them by His Spirit in time when He gives to them the
gospel in life and faith and they see Him, they trust Him.
But it's a union of love because the Lord Jesus Christ loved them
and gave Himself for them. So all of these things teach
us about what marriage is. It's a legal union, a union of
love, a union of commitment. The Lord Jesus Christ committed
Himself to God for His people. He gave Himself for them in that
covenant of grace. He obligated Himself and He took
their case. It says He's the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ. He purchased
the church with His own blood. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, Jesus said He made them male and female. You immediately
can see that this physical union couldn't be possible except through
perversion, but for a man and a woman. It's so obvious from
scripture that the distortion of it in homosexuality is not
only is it perverse and wrong, but it shows how far the pendulum
has swung that people would even claim that there's anything right
about that. It can't be. God never intended
that, but it's the way false religion does it. So, every perversion
of this is a perversion of the Gospel. One man, one woman, joined
as one in the eyes of God. God created this, didn't He?
He created them for this purpose, to be joined as man and wife. He created them for that purpose.
And so anything distorting that, perverting that, whether it be
adultery, or fornication, or homosexuality, all those things
are a perversion of the truth of marriage. God created them
in the beginning, one man. And then right away in Genesis
you see, after the fall of man, what do you see? It says that
this man, what was his name? Lamech took to him two wives. The name of the one was Adah
and the name of the other was Zillah. In verse 23 of chapter
4, he says, Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear
my voice, he wives. What's he doing? He's got two
wives. What's he doing with two wives?
That's a perversion of marriage. One wife is what God made Adam. He says, not only did God make
them male and female, but he looked at Adam, after he created
Adam first, and he says, it's not good for the man to be alone. What did he do? He said, I will
create and help meet for him someone who is so compatible
to him that when he looks upon her, he desires her. For her
beauty, for the communion that they have with each other, When
they talk with each other. Pouring out his heart. Someone
he can give himself to and give himself for. And spend his life
with. Enjoy all the blessings of God
together. And worship God together. This was the man and his wife.
This is the way God created them. That they would be in the eyes
of God as one. And He would love her. And she
would in love submit to Him. And He would commit Himself to
her all the days of His life. And she would be for Him only.
He would leave father and mother. Because the union God gave to
them. The love God gave to them. Would
be higher. A higher priority than the love
even He had for His parents. And the commitment He had to
them. Which was by birth. It says in Genesis chapter 2. Verse 21, And the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and
brought her to the man. He brought this woman to the
man. This was God's doing. How can we miss this? God's design,
God's creation, God's doing, God's blessing, it's all in God's
hand. And it has to be done as God
designed it. He caused a deep sleep to fall
on Adam because the Lord Jesus Christ would have his people
through his own death. God created the woman out of
one of His ribs because the Lord Jesus Christ would be one with
His people. They would be one flesh. And
part of His bones and part of His flesh, it says in Ephesians
5, verse 30, No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but loves
and nourishes and cares for it. And so a man does his own wife. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
does His own people. They're one with Him. It's so
beautiful that God has given us this. Now, our physical marriage
with our wife is a representation of the true marriage between
Christ and His Church. Our physical marriage to us seems
like this is the total thing. This is real. This is what God
intended. And it is. But even in its physical
reality, it's still but just a shadow and picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ and His people are in truth. It's not
pretend, but it's still just a shadow of the true. So what
we see and enjoy and experience every day as husband and wife,
again, is to teach us about this truth of God's marriage of Christ,
His Son, with His daughter, His chosen adopted children, to his
son, they're the children of the king, he's the son of the
king, and they're both the children of God, and they're married to
him. It's a beautiful thing that God
has given us in Scripture, that the Lord Jesus Christ would consider
everything else All of creation was made by Him and for Him. And everything that He created,
He created to have her, His people. So that she is, above all things
that He has, is the treasure of His heart. That He would give
Himself for and give Himself to throughout time, throughout
eternity. Committing Himself to her before
time and never once divorcing her. Never once thinking even
a thought of divorcing her. And so he says this in Matthew
19, he says, "...what God hath joined together, let not man
put asunder." And then in verse 7, they said to Jesus, "...why
did Moses then command to give her a writing of divorcement,
and to put her away?" So now they knew that Jesus would take
the bait. He didn't take the bait. They didn't ever have a
jump on Him. He explained the truth for us,
for the people who heard, to justify God, to glorify God in
what He did in creation, to establish the fact that Moses' law came
later, and that what God said in creation superseded it in
all senses. And so we might even ask, why
did God allow this if that was not God's design? If God didn't
intend for people to get divorced, why did He say that it was okay?
And here I want you to see something in scripture that I hadn't really
considered before. But it's true, it's actually
quite prevalent in Scripture, and it's a principle, I think,
that if we understand it, it should put us in a state of seriousness
before God in our walk with Him. Fearing God is a good thing.
Now think about this. It says here, Jesus said, in
answer to their question, why did Moses then command to give
a writing of divorcement to put her away? And their question
was, is it lawful to put her away for every cause? And in
Deuteronomy 24 we just saw, yes, if the man finds an occasion
of uncleanness in her, it doesn't seem good in his eyes, and he
can put her away. So it seems like it's pretty
loose, right? You can pretty much divorce your
wife or whatever you want. I mean, if she makes a mess and
her hair's not right or who knows what doesn't please you about
her. You can find all kinds of causes to nitpick, can't you?
And people would do that, I'm sure they would. Make her feel
miserable. You'd belittle her and talk down to her. just make a real misery of her
life for her. The man is stronger, and he intimidates
her, constantly picking on her, and treating her like she's a
slave because she can't get out from under the marriage, and
so he treats her like that. But here Jesus says, the reason Moses
gave you divorce was for the hardness of your hearts. Now
I want you to think back to Numbers 22 with me. Look at this, Numbers
chapter 22. And I'm going to state something
here that might shock you. But sometimes in scripture, God
says one thing and allows one thing when actually His heart
is different than what He allows. And the way he does this is for
a reason. And we see it in Numbers chapter
22. Remember what happened in Numbers chapter 22? In verse
15, there was a king called Balak. And he was afraid because the
children of Israel were coming through. And they saw them, that
they were mighty, that God was for them. And he knew the only
way he could, down the road, in the future, stop them, is
if he somehow could curse them. So he hired this soothsayer,
Balaam, in verse 2. Balak, the son of Zippor, saw
all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was sore afraid
of the people, because there were many. And Moab was distressed
because of the children of Israel. And Moab said to the elders of
Midian, Now shalt this company lick up all that are around about
us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak,
the son of Zippor, was king of the Moabites at that time. And
he sent messengers, therefore, to Balaam. the son of Beor, to
Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of
his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come
out of Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they
abide over against me. Now come, therefore, I pray thee,
curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me. Peradventure,
I shall prevail. that we may smite them, and that
I may drive them out of the land. For I want that he whom thou
blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed." Balaam
is saying to Balaam, I know if you bless somebody they're blessed,
and if you curse someone they're cursed. So come on, curse this
people for me. And the elders of Moab and the
elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in
their hand. And they came to Balaam and spake to him the words
of Balaam. And he said to them, Lodge here
this night, And I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall
speak to me, and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam." Now,
Balaam is a soothsayer. That means he can perceive things
that God is going to do or that other people can't see. God has
given him this gift. It turns out that Balaam is not
one of God's people. Even though he has this gift,
it's called a gift of divination. He's able to see things that
are mysterious to the average person. Spiritual things. The
way that God sees things. And these people of Israel. And
so Balaam... When Balak comes to him with
his messengers and says, Man, we really want you to curse these
people. Israel for us. Balaam knew that
these were God's people. It wasn't like a mystery to him.
He understood that. Yet... He said, I know what I'll
do. I'll go ask God if He will allow
me to curse them for you. It wasn't even necessary for
him to ask that question of God. He knew what was true, what was
right. It wasn't right for him to curse these people. Yet he
went to the Lord asking permission. Why? Because he was greedy. He
wanted the rewards. So he goes to God and he says
to Him like this. He says, When he said to Balak,
he would go ask the Lord. Verse 9, And God came to Balaam
and said, What men are these with thee? And Balaam said to
God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent them to me,
saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covers
the face of the earth. Come now and curse them for me.
Peradventure I shall be able to overcome them and drive them
out. Balaam played ignorant before God. Well, I don't know. This
Balak and Zippor, these people, they came to me. I don't know
who they are. He's not being open with God here, is he? In
verse 12, And God said to Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them,
thou shalt not curse this people, for they are blessed. And Balaam
rose up in the morning and said to the princes of Moab, Get you
into the land, for the Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you.
He shouldn't have asked, but God said, No! You see? Do not go with them. Verse 12.
So he tells them, no I can't go with you, in verse 14, and
the princes of Moab rose up and they went to Balak and said Balaam
refuses to come. Balak sent yet again more princes,
more honorable, and they came to Balaam and said to him, thus
saith Balak the son of Zippor, let nothing I pray thee hinder
thee from coming to me, for I will promote thee into very great
honor, I will do whatsoever thou sayest to me. Come therefore
I pray thee, curse me this people. And Balaam said, answered and
said to the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house
full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the word of the Lord
my God to do less or more. Now therefore, I pray you, tarry
you also this night, that I may know what the Lord will say to
me more." What are you talking about, Balaam? The Lord already
gave you an answer. Ah, just stay here. I'll go ask
him again. That's a flat denial of who God
is. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Balaam says
a little later in this discourse. So, God came to Balaam, listen
now, at night, and he said to him, If the men come to call
thee, rise up and go with them. But yet the word that I shall
say to thee, that shalt thou do. Notice, "...and Balaam rose
up in the morning, saddled his ass, and went with the princes
of Moab, and God's anger was kindled because he went." Okay,
so I said all that in order to give you the picture here. Balaam's
thinking, what can I do to get the money? I know these are God's
people. If this king wants me to curse
them, I know. I'll go ask God. You shouldn't
have asked, but he did. God gave him a straight answer,
don't go. Oh man. So he goes back and tells them,
look guys I can't do this. He knows God is going to take
him out if he does any of these things that they are asking him
to do. But they offer him a lot of money and more honor. So he
says, okay I'll go ask him again. So the Lord says, look, if he
comes then go with him, but only say what I tell you to say. So
Balaam gets on his donkey in the morning and he takes off.
And God's anger is against Balaam. Why? Because he knew what God
wanted him to do. And yet he asked God permission
to do what he knew was against God's heart. And God gave him
permission to do it. And God was angry at him because
he did what was opposed to what was in God's heart. Balaam was
given permission by God to go with Balak, even though it was
for the hardness of Balaam's heart. And God is going to judge
Balaam for this. And yet, God is going to turn
his evil intent to the blessing of God's people. Now, this same
pattern is seen in other places. I've given you a negative here
of Balaam. But there's other cases too in
scripture. Both positive and negative. And it's important
that you see this negatively. Remember in the Old Testament,
we just read it here. God gave the Israelites this
law that said you can divorce your wife if you find some uncleanness.
But really, is that what God meant? No, Jesus says. Not from the beginning. He made
them male and female. And for this cause a man shall
leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife. They too
shall be one flesh. What God has put together. Don't
let man separate or divide asunder. No! But can't we do it? And the thing
of it is, if you ask God, if you approach the scripture and
you say, could I get a divorce? You know what you're going to
find in scripture? Yes, you can. And you're going to say, oh good,
get rid of that woman now. Because that's what I wanted
to do in the beginning. Even though you knew in your
heart that is not what God wanted. But we look for ways to get out
of what we know is in God's heart. That is not what Jesus did. The
Pharisees came to Him with an evil intent of driving a wedge
between Him and His people. They started asking questions.
Well, isn't it true though, that technically speaking, in the
law it says you can do this. Well yeah, it says that. But
it says it because of the hardness of your heart. Now that's the
way that unbelievers act toward God. That's the way we act when
we act in the flesh. Things are going well for me.
Look, I can do this, I can do that. Even though God has plainly
revealed that's not the way I'm supposed to behave. And look,
I've got blessings. I mean, it's sunny outside. I'm
out here by the lake. I'm having a good time, I got
my gear, I got everything a man could want. Happy wife, happy
children, happy life, good job, money in the bank. God is blessing
me, isn't he? Well, it depends what you consider
your blessings from God. The prayer that was made in Ecclesiastes
is, don't give me more than I need. Don't leave me begging, but don't
give me riches. Because I don't want my heart
to be turned away from you. The wise man understands the
ways of God. When God came to Abraham and
said, regarding Sodom and Gomorrah, you know what He said? I'm going
to destroy this city. What did Abraham say? That was
the revealed will of God. I'm going to destroy this city,
these cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. But what did Abraham do? He said,
Lord, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? What
if there were 50 righteous? Would you destroy the whole city
even though there's 50? No, no. The judge of all the
earth will do right. Lord, would you spare the city
if there were just 50 righteous? And God says, I'll spare it for
50. And He keeps going. 45, 40, 30,
20, how about 10? You see, Abraham, with eyes of
faith, could see what was in the heart of God, and he knew
he was gracious and merciful, and so he prayed and interceded
according to God's heart, even though the actual words God said
seemed to indicate that God was just going to wipe him out. But
he prayed against that, didn't he? And he revealed in doing
so that he was a true believer, because he understood what God
really wanted. And so it was with Moses. The
children of Israel are down at the bottom of Mount Sinai making
a calf. Aaron is helping them. Moses
is told by God, go down. These people have turned themselves
to worshiping idols, gone a-whoring. He says, I'm going to destroy
this people. I'm going to destroy them. That's what he said. You
know, Moses could have said, well, God said it, so that's
what's going to happen. No, he falls on his face and
he says, Lord, look, if you destroy these people, what's the enemy
going to say? What about your great name? The
fact that you made a covenant with Abraham? You can't destroy
these people because the enemy is going to bring... You couldn't
save them because they were so wicked. Or, you didn't keep your
covenant to them. All the things. You weren't good.
You weren't strong enough. You weren't gracious enough.
Moses understood the heart of God and with eyes of faith he
acted accordingly. The woman, the Syrophoenician
woman, in Matthew 15, she did the same thing. Comes to Jesus.
My daughter, grievously vexed with the devil. Jesus didn't
answer her. She goes to the disciples. They
turn away. They ask Jesus, send her away.
She comes back to Jesus. He says, no I'm not sent but
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Oh Lord, have mercy
upon me. Help me. He says it's not right
to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Truth Lord,
but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
And Jesus said, O woman, great is thy faith! Because she saw
that in the heart of Christ, she saw with eyes of God-given
faith what He was truly like, and she acted accordingly. And
Jesus is telling the Pharisees, you look at God's Word with legal
eyes for a way of getting out of what you ought to do. You
look at the outward appearance. You judge outwardly. But when
the Lord Jesus Christ came in the book of Matthew in chapters
5 and 6 and 7, He took the law and He lifted it up and He showed
the spirituality of it. And raised it so high that this
is what God requires and demands of us. And then He shows us where
to go to get it to Him. We can't. We haven't met it.
We fell short. Everyone has fallen short. And
we can't achieve that. And yet He tells us it's in Him.
And so it is in this place here in Matthew chapter 19. Look at
Malachi chapter 2. We looked at that last time when
we studied this. Read from verse 14 through 16. against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously." Malachi 2, verse 14. You have dealt treacherously
with your wife, the wife of your youth. God gave you this woman
to be your wife. You've dealt treacherously. How?
Well, because either you divorced her for some uncleanness, or
you married other women from these other nations, these heathen
nations, and now you're worshiping their idols. You dealt treacherously
with a woman God gave to you. The woman who was the companion,
he says, Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. Marriage is a commitment. A commitment
between two people in the eyes of God. To live together in singular
devotion to one another in love. And to exclude all others. Because
that's the way God designed it. And it's good because God said
it's good. And it represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He blesses it. And then He
says, and did He not make one? Yet had he the residue of the
Spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed? Why
did God make male and female one? Because God wanted to bring
forth children to the Lord. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hates putting away."
He hates putting away. That's God's answer. about divorce. He says in Matthew 19, in the
beginning it was not so. God made them male and female.
A man leaves his father and his mother. He's joined to his wife.
What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. That's
what God wants. That's what his heart is. Oh
sure, you can get divorced if you want to. But if you do, know
this. That you're turning against everything
that marriage represents. If the Lord Jesus Christ divorced
his wife, where would any of us be? You see, the book of Hosea,
and we can't go through it, but the book of Hosea is about a
prophet. Hosea, whose name means Joshua. whose name means Jesus, the one
who saves his people from their sins. What did Hosea do? God
said, go down, see this woman, this adulterous woman, find her,
marry her. She had children of whoredoms,
she was an adulterous woman, she was a promiscuous wife, and
yet he went and he bought her. She had wasted her life in prostitution,
and he saw her, and she had been unfaithful to him, and yet even
though she was his wife and had acted so, he bought her for himself,
and he loved her. This is what God has done for
all those He saves. He loves them and He bought them
with His own blood. You can read the book of Hosea
for yourself. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
His life for His people though they were sinful. And therefore
God hates divorce. He loved them with an everlasting
love. He gave Himself for them. There's
not one time when He even thought about divorcing His wife. Not
one time. And so God tells us this, He
says, no, no, in the beginning God made them, but it's the hardness
of your heart. And so He says in verse 9 in
Matthew 19, I say to you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery,
and whoever marries her that is put away commits adultery.
Except for fornication there. But why fornication? Why? Well you see, again, In the beginning
it was not so. God never intended to ever divorce
His people. God hates putting away. Yes,
God hates adultery. But He loved His people and He
found a way to bring them to Himself in faithfulness. I will
betroth thee to myself in faithfulness, the Lord says in Hosea. And in
loving kindness. Look at Isaiah chapter 61. And
fortunately, there's much we need to say, but we don't have
time. He says, Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in
the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels, See, this is
the relationship between Christ and His people. As a bridegroom,
He decks Himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns Herself
with her jewels, God has clothed His people with salvation and
covered them with a robe of His own righteousness. And therefore,
they rejoice together. This is the way God designed
marriage, and there's no separation because of it. And yet, God allows
for divorce. Because, why? Because of the
hardness of our heart. Now, you say, well, but I don't
get it. Is there no way? Listen, what
was the context again? Forgive, how many times? Seven times a day? No, no. Seventy
times seven. You see, when you forgive, When
you receive someone, when you see your wife and she's done
something, some uncleanness that doesn't please you, what are
you supposed to do? Oh man, I knew she was like that. She's irritating
me all the time. The way she talks to me, the
way she walks, the way she looks, the way she smells, the way she
cooks, everything. It's a big irritation. I should
have never even gotten into this ball and chain situation. That's
entirely opposite of what God does, isn't it? When you forgive,
what are you doing? You're acting as one of God's
children. Remember Ephesians 5.1, the followers
of God as dear children. tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. When we
forgive, it's the highest expression of faith in God, because we have
received from Him full pardon of all of our sins. So when we
forgive, we're acting as the children of our Father. We're
acting as our beloved husband, who has forgiven us all. of our
idolatrous prostitution of ourselves in spiritual adultery. And who
bought us with his own blood, even though we were adulterous
to him, spiritually. Physically and spiritually. In
our minds we commit physical adultery. In our bodies sometimes
we do the same. And in our souls we've done it
daily. And the Lord receives us, forgives
us of all of our sins. When you see your wife, And she's
done something. What should you do? Well, do
what the Lord does for His wife. What does He do? He prays for
her, remember? Luke 23, 34. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Acts 7, verse 60. Stephen said the same thing as
they're stoning him. Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. Can't we even do that for our
own wives? Lord, what she's done isn't against me. It's against
you. Lord, please forgive her. And
we receive her back for the Lord's sake. That is what faith does. Faith forgives and forgives and
forgives because faith sees that in its own husband and in its
own father. And so we do that. It's the greatest
expression of faith in God and of love to lay down. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
do for his people? He who his own self Bear our
sins in His own body. Think of the guilt He took our
guilt. Think of the filth of our sins
made His. Think of the shame, the humiliation,
and the suffering, the pain, the separation it caused between
Him and God. Think of all of that. He did
that for His wife. Does God love marriage? He does. Does He hate divorce? Yes, and
you see it in Christ. Everything she did, He bore it
Himself away that He might have her for Himself. Because that's
the way God designed it. He gave her to Him, created her
for Him, and gave her to Him that He might give Himself for
her and give Himself to her in love and commitment. Not only
legal. But a bond of love. It's not
just a legal thing. So when we look for these things
in scripture, we have to understand God's heart in the matter. Jesus
did. Faith sees God's heart in these
things. Do people get divorced? Yes they
do. Is it legal? Is it right before God? God allows
it. Certain things, God allows it.
He says here, He allows it for fornication. He allows it for
when one spouse says, I don't want to be with you anymore.
I'm going my own way. Let them go. But on the other hand, if
your spouse commits fornication, what are you going to do? You forgive them, Lord Jesus. Forgive that loved one of mine. And change this heart of mine
to act toward you as you've acted toward me, doing everything for
them. Love is not what you get. Love is what you give. And love
begins. where human strength ends. And so we have to go to God and
say, Lord, give me grace not to think of my wicked self, but
to think of this one you've given to me by grace as a gift to be
my bosom wife, to love, to have, and to hold, to give myself to
all the days of my life as a picture of your great goodness and grace
to me as a sinner, a helpless, diseased, and heart-plagued sinner. who came to you and you healed
them. And guess what happens? The Lord designs these who are
celibate, like the Apostle Paul and John the Baptist, who lay
their life down for the wife. in purity to give her to her
husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then what happens? Little
children come along. The gospel goes forth and God's
children are brought in. And Jesus says, suffer the little
children that come unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.
Do you see it here? Do you see the picture of the church? Christ,
his people, the bride, the husband, the workers, the servants. The
ones who tend to the bride to make her beautiful by preaching
the gospel to her and pointing her to her husband and wooing
her to him with words of love from his own heart to her. The
commitment he has. Can you not love the Lord Jesus
Christ who gave himself so and who says, I'm going to bring
her to me." Remember what Hosea said in Hosea 13.9. Oh Israel,
you adulterous wife. Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself. Here you are in the auction block.
Adultery all your life. You've wasted your life. You're
nothing left of you. You're not even hardly worth
the money to even buy you so that you can work to get your
food. You're not even worth that. No
one wants you. And then your husband. steps
forward and he buys you with a price of his own blood. I want
her. O Israel, you've destroyed yourself,
but in me is thy help found. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
See the love of his heart. May God give us faith to forgive
and to treat his people as those loved of the Lord, the wife of
our bosom, our dear beloved, as our own representation of
His love to us. God help us to love her even
as He loved His people." If we do, I'm sure that our wives will
submit to us in love, won't they? My wife has always been such
a dear heart to me. So faithful and loving. And I
can tell you that even when I try to do something kind to her,
she always recognizes it, acknowledges it, and smiles at me. Pats me on the head. Anyway. Whatever you do for your wife,
it's going to come back. Your wife is going to... to be even more tender and gracious
than she already was. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this wonderful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and His
love for your people. They've given us in marriage.
Thank you for this solemn warning not to ask God to give us what
we should not have, what's against His heart. Help us to know your
heart, Lord, and by faith seek for it with all of our heart
to be like you. Give us a heart like our Savior.
who laid his life down, who protected his people against all their
enemies, who stood up for them and owned them when they were
diseased and healed them of their diseases by bearing their plague
in his own self up to the tree of cursing, that he might have
them and hold them and keep them and preserve them and bring them
to glory and show them his glory and clothe them in his own righteousness
and bear many children bring those sons and daughters to God.
Thank you for this wonderful Savior who hates divorce and
loves marriage because that's why He created this world and
everything in it, to have a wife for Himself. And help us to see
this, Lord, with eyes of faith, to give ourselves to one another
as husband and wife in the fear of the Lord and to raise children
knowing that they're your children, and to see one another as your
own dear children, to forgive and to forgive. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.