So, today we're going to be studying
Matthew 5, verses 31 and 32, and related verses on this topic,
marriage, divorce, and the gospel. So, I've got 10 points here. Sounds like a lot, but we're
going to try to get through it in a short amount of time here.
But I don't want you to miss the gospel in this subject. First of all, remember that in
Matthew chapter 5, especially beginning from verse 17 and through
this, we see some things that I want to remind you of. It's
important that we keep this framework in our view as we study this
because it's the reason that these things were connected together.
When Jesus talks about what murder is, or when he talks about adultery,
or when he talks about divorce, or when he talks about not swearing,
or how we should love our enemies, or these kinds of things, he's
teaching us at the very outset something that we don't think
about too much. But when we read this, it has
an impact on us, and the reason it has an impact on us And the
effect that it has on us is because these verses are teaching us,
first of all, the holiness of God. The holiness of God. Now, I don't want to spend too
much time on this, the holiness of God. When we think about the
holiness of God, we think about, we use that word, we just sang
a song, holy, holy, holy. What does it even mean to be
holy? And the Bible defines the holiness
of God, and it means really this, it means God's perfections. God's purity in all that He is. And so you see in these verses
that the Lord Jesus opens to us the fact that God sees everything
about us. He hears our words, He understands
why we spoke them, the motives of our hearts, what we think
about, and what we do. It's all naked and open before
God. God doesn't allow anything to
go unobserved. And He doesn't allow anything
to go untested and unjudged. God is going to make sure everything
is held to account, because God is holy. And when I say God is
holy, I mean that it's not just something like us. I have an
arm, a right arm, or I have an ear, or I have feet, and I have
a chest, and I have these different parts of my body. When we think
about God's holiness, it's not a part of God. Sometimes we think
of God's justice, or we think of His love, we think of His
judgment, and we think of His mercy, and we put these things
together and we try to put together this puzzle in our minds of what
God is and who He's like. When we say His holiness, we
mean all that God is, fit together perfectly, is pure. There's nothing
about God that has any compromise. Every part of Him is absolutely
pure and each part of Him together, if you could think of it as that,
is pure in all of His parts and perfect. It's all balanced. There's
no compromise between anything in God. He's holy. He can't do
wrong. He knows all things and He does
all things at all times perfectly. And there's no sin. There's not
even a shadow of turning with Him. He doesn't change. Everything with God is holy,
holy, holy. He's light, pure light. There's
nothing defiled in God. And so when we hear these words
from Matthew 5, we see that God is holy. And because God is holy,
we feel the brightness of that holiness penetrating our thoughts. And judging our words and our
actions by the intentions and motives of our heart. And that
has an effect on us, doesn't it? When we understand something
about the holiness of God, the first thing it does to us is
it lays us low in the dust. It humbles us. It humbles us. It has to do this. Look at 1
Samuel chapter 2. This helped me. Hannah, the mother
of Samuel, prayed this prayer when she left her son Samuel.
Eli to work to to serve God as a priest in the temple gave her
son gave her son to the Lord and she prayed this prayer about
God And she says in verse 1 of 1 Samuel 2, Hannah prayed and
said, My heart rejoices in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the
Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice
in thy salvation. Why was she so lifted up in joy,
in holy joy, and delight, and triumph? Because she rejoiced
in God's salvation. Therefore her enemies were subdued
before her. And then it says in verse 2,
There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee,
neither is there any rock like our God. And now look at the
very next verse. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions
are weighed. You see that? That's what's happening
in Matthew 5. God is weighing our actions, our thoughts, our
words, everything about us. And when we understand that God
is that holy, and that nothing escapes His searching eye, that
He knows why we do what we do at all times. And we know that
there's no defilement, no sin in God. It immediately takes
away all ground in ourselves for confidence of our own righteousness. It removes all hope in our self-righteousness. It takes it away, strips us of
it. And that's the first thing we
feel here in Matthew 5. It reduces us to nothing before
God in painful humiliation, guilty before God, corrupting ourselves.
And then it springs upon us this great need we have of a Savior. We would have no hope if it were
not for a Savior who Himself took up our cause as our substitute
and in holiness fulfilled all that was in the heart of God
in satisfaction to God and fulfillment of God's requirements on us.
That is why we admire and adore the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew
5. We see the great requirements
He has laid out and we feel our lack and our our inability and
then we see the greatness of our Savior and those things together
cause us to fall down and worship God and we have to cry like Isaiah
said when the Lord when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ high and
lifted on his throne and he heard the angels cry the seraphim holy
holy holy and he said Woe is me! Woe is me! I'm a man of unclean
lips! I dwell amongst a people of unclean
lips, and mine eyes have seen the Lord, because that's the
effect of seeing God's holiness that we have. It humbles us,
it makes us low, and we say, I'm a sinful man. And like Peter
said when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, depart from
me Lord, I'm a sinful man. So that's the first thing I want
you to not forget when we look at these verses here in Matthew
5, 31 and 32. So here we have this matter of
divorce. Look at this. It says, Jesus
says, it hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let
him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causes her to commit adultery. And whoever shall marry her that
is divorced commits adultery." Look back with me at Deuteronomy
chapter 24. This is where this is taken from.
I want to read it there because it's important we see what Jesus
was referring to. This was God's law. God gave
it to Moses, and he gave it to Moses to give to the people.
In verse 1 of Deuteronomy 24, it says, When a man has taken
a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no
favor in his eyes because he has 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. 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 give it in 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, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which
the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. So there
you have it. It's saying here that a man has
a wife and he finds something in her that he's not happy with. It says some uncleanness. It
doesn't say specifically what that uncleanness is. But it can't
be the uncleanness of adultery, because for adultery, the sentence
was death. And fornication, it was death.
And there were ways for a man, a husband, to test to see if
his wife had committed that, according to the Old Testament
law. So this had to do with other uncleannesses. It could be little
things. He might not like something about
the way she smelled or something about the cleanness of her in
some way and he decided he wasn't happy with her and God allowed
for them to give her a bill of divorcement to send her out and
to go away from him. And so Jesus said, you heard
that has been said that whosoever shall put away his wife, let
him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causes her to commit adultery, and whoever shall marry her that
is divorced commits adultery." So here we have a correction
Jesus is making to this law that people were following on divorce. So the first question is, what
is marriage? Now I'm just going to give you
this in a summary of what we covered last time because we
talked about this. Remember, marriage is a covenant
union. It's a union of mutual commitment
where there's no commitment, there's no love, there's no valid
marriage. And so the first thing you hear
when people get married is there's a pledge by both the husband
and the wife to one another. That's a covenant union. It's
an agreement, a solemn agreement to love and cherish and respect
and fulfill the needs of one another. The wife no longer belongs
to herself. She can't just do what she wants
with herself. And the husband can no longer
do what he wants with himself. They're committed to each other
to meet the needs of one another and to love one another. That
means to place the other's needs before themselves. That's what
love is. So the second thing about marriage
is that it's a loving union. A mutual trust and affection
for one another. And it's a legal union. God created
marriage. God blessed marriage, the man
and the wife. And God said it in His law. This
is what it is. God says in Hebrews 13, marriage
is honorable in all. And the bed, the marriage bed
is undefiled. God blessed that. And that's
why we have children. It's because God has blessed
that union. Not only is it a legal union,
but it's a public union. When we stand before people,
we're letting them know, I love this woman. She's mine. I'm taking
her to myself. And she is saying, and I'm committing
myself to this man only, separate from all others. And the man
and the wife are willing to say this publicly, so let everyone
know, we now are devoted to one another in the sight of God and
before men. And so it's a public union. And
these things all have their corollary in the spiritual sense. And I'm
hoping that you're thinking about that as I go through. And it's
a physical union. There's an intimacy in marriage
that God has created and reserved only for marriage. Intimacy outside
of this is an intimacy of non-commitment. It's an intimacy of taking, not
giving. And so God has set the intimacy
of marriage as the consummation of the marriage, not as the courtship
of marriage. And it's God-given. Again, it's
that by which God produces children. The fruit of the womb comes from
this union God has placed together, this intimacy. This intimacy
is a union so much so that God says, the two shall be made one
flesh. One flesh. What God has joined
together, let not man put asunder. And it's a union in the Lord.
Marriage is an act of faith. when it's done by believers.
It's an act of faith. God has given me this woman.
Have you ever thought about that, husbands? God gave me this woman.
I know, we think, I attracted her to me because of my great
skill or my great looks or something. My great strength. Today on TV,
it's all about your physical appearance. It's always been
that way. It's interesting that what men consider beautiful is
what they can see with their eyes. When we see beauty, we
think of it outwardly, don't we? Look at that man. He's strong. He's handsome. Or look at that
woman. She's very beautiful. But God doesn't look at the outward
appearance at all. God says that true beauty is
the beauty of holiness, the beauty of purity, the beauty of truth,
the beauty of justice, the beauty of love that gives when there's
no cause to give and gives of itself sacrificially. That's
the beauty to God. So what we look like is just
a physical representation of what God is trying to teach us
at a spiritual level. But we usually miss that, don't
we? Because what we see is right in front of us and what we taste
and those things. Our body just seems to control
everything. Taste and smell and looks and
everything drive everything we do almost. To go further, it's
a union in the Lord. It's a marriage. where I've committed
to this woman before God in sickness and health, for better, for worse,
to love, to cherish, to provide, protect, disclose my heart to
her and share with her my joy and happiness and give to her
and delight in her as long as we both shall live. And that's
the way God has designed it. And as I said last week, the
family itself is meant to teach us the truth of the spiritual
family in heaven. God himself is called the Father
and the Son. And the church is called the
Bride and the Mother. And all these things are to teach
us about spiritual realities. So that, remember, that's the
marriage. That's where we start from. So
the question is, well then what is divorce? What is divorce? Well, we read about it in Deuteronomy
24. Divorce is where a man or a woman
sends his wife away and separates himself from her, declares himself
no longer to be married to her, and takes away all the things
that he would give, normally give to her, he no longer gives,
no longer loves her, no longer shows her that kindness, and
no longer is committed to her. It's a separation. It's a putting
away, God says. No longer my wife. It's a breaking
of the covenant of marriage. And so Jesus said in Matthew
5, he says, whoever shall put away his wife, saving for the
cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery. When
you send your wife out, just for every cause of uncleanness
you find in her, maybe she didn't cook the eggs right or something.
She didn't clean the dishes. Who knows what it was? He just,
he got tired of her. Well, we'll get to that in a
minute. So he sends her out. What is
she going to do? Well, she has a life to live, and another man
finds her attractive, and he takes her to be his wife. And
now she's committed adultery, because he sent her away for
no good cause, and she became another man's wife, and now he
causes her to commit adultery. That's what it says. He causes
her to commit adultery. So the first question we have
to ask when we think about these things, besides what is marriage
and what is divorce, is why did the Lord Jesus Christ mention
divorce here? Why? Why did he bring up divorce
in the middle of his sermon? Well, because of a number of
reasons. Number one, men are sinful, and
divorce is an admission of sin. It's an admission of something
went wrong. I got tired of her, so I got rid of her. That's sin. That's a failure, a total failure
on the man's part. He got rid of his wife. Isn't
that the first thing you see here? Why mention divorce? Because
divorce is an evidence of man's sinfulness. And secondly, to
build on that, that because men here at this time, even in Jesus'
day, and today especially, men hold such a low view. And when I say men, I don't just
mean the male part. But people hold such a low view
of marriage. The Lord Jesus Christ is doing
what? He's revealing God's heart. God's holiness. And he's telling
us what God thinks. Because what God thinks is all
that matters. Truth is what God thinks. Holiness is who God is. And God is revealing these things
to us because we don't think this way, because we listen.
to the lies and to the falsity of all that we hear and think
on our own. And God has to break through.
He has to command the light to shine in the darkness or we'll
never know the truth. We'll never know what God thinks.
And so men hold such a low view of marriage. They hold a low
view of God's law. They hold a low view of God himself
and of his holiness. Look at Matthew chapter 19. It's
important that we not hold low views of God. It's important,
because we ultimately will have to give an account to God, and
we will, whether we think we will now, we will admit, we will
own, and we will confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord, the Holy Lord, the God of all things, the God of us,
the God of me. And we're going to say that.
And it's best that we agree now, as he says earlier in Matthew
5. But look at Matthew chapter 19. And remember, this was because
I said, why did Jesus mention divorce? I want to read this
through, but notice what he says in verse 10 when we get there.
It says, in verse 1 of Matthew 19, It came to pass that when
Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and
came to the coast of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes
followed Him there, and He healed them. There's a whole sermon in that,
but we can't spend time on it now. But think about it. All these people coming to Jesus
plagued with diseases. that not only afflicted them,
but made it shameful for them before people. And they came
to Jesus just as they were, asking Him to do for them what they
could not do for themselves. They were helpless and hopeless,
and they came to Him. He was their only hope that He
might heal them, and He healed them there. Isn't that an encouragement
to us to come to Christ? It doesn't matter what your disease
is. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 3. In the midst of all this mercy
and grace, here come the enemies. The Pharisees also came to him,
tempting him, not to learn from him, but tempting, saying to
him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Because that's what Deuteronomy
chapter 24 basically said. If he finds some uncleanness,
it could be just about anything. Didn't wash your clothes. That's
uncleanness or whatever. Verse 4, And he answered and
said to them, Have you not read that he which made them at the
beginning made them male and female? Now this is the whole
denunciation right now of homosexuality. Right in that verse, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself goes all the way to the beginning Where
Jesus, where God spoke, and he says, haven't you read in the
beginning God made them male and female? How do you simultaneously
evolve a male and a female? I don't get it. Science has some
questions that can never be answered. But yet, God created them male
and female. One man, one woman. One man was
created. God took the rib of one man and
out of that rib from that one man created for that man one
woman. That's the pattern. That's the
truth. And he said, For this cause, Adam said this, but it
was God who was speaking prophetically through him even before Adam
had had children or saw how families would work in their experience.
He saw the pattern in himself. He says, for this cause shall
a man leave Father and mother. He's going to leave those bonds
that are the most basic of all. I was born to my mother. My father
raised me from an infant. Now I'm grown. And he says, no,
there's a stronger bond yet to be made. It's between the man
and the woman, and he says, therefore shall a man leave his father
and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall
be one flesh. Wherefore, here's the answer
to the Pharisees, they are no more two, or twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. Divorce is man separating what
God has joined. And then they say to him, all
right, now we've got him. He's going back to that. We're
going to tell you what Moses said. And if you don't agree
with Moses, then first of all, the people who heard Jesus speak
these things, they would naturally think, whoa, that's a very restrictive
view on life. Are you kidding? And then the
Pharisees make it worse because they say, well, this is what
Moses said. And if you don't agree with Moses, not only are
you... Not only are you polarizing the
people against yourself because you're making it so restrictive,
but you're denouncing Moses? You can't do that. This is exactly
what they were after. They were trying to separate
the Lord Jesus Christ from all these people who came to Him.
Multitudes coming to Him and being healed. Publicans and harlots
coming to Christ and being healed and being accepted by Him. And
they're thinking, we've got to stop this. Man, the world is
going after him. And so they raise these issues,
and this is one of them, in order to separate the people from him.
To drive a wedge between Christ and sinners. And he says, and
they say, why did Moses then command to give a riding of divorced
men and to put her away? He said to them, Moses, because
of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your
wives. Suffered means he allowed it to be. But from the beginning
it was not so. Now this is spoken with authority,
isn't it? Hear what God says from the beginning.
What Moses said, the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here. What he
gave to you was because of the hardness of your hearts. And
I say to you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it
be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery. And whoso marries her, which
is put away, commits adultery." Put away for any cause, but that
one cause. And listen, this is what I wanted
to point out here. Why did he mention divorce in Matthew 5?
Because of men's low view of it. Look what the view the disciples
had. His disciples say to him, if the case of the man be so
with his wife, it is not good to marry. What they're saying
is that if I can't put away my wife for every cause, it's not
a good idea to get married. The disciples revealed the common
view in that day. They had internalized it. And
even though Peter had a wife, I don't know when he got married
to her, they had this view that marriage was something that you
could, you know, it was kind of a convenience. You get married
and then you get tired of it, you separate, no problem. God's
law even allowed it. But Jesus corrects that. He says,
no, no. Your view of marriage is low because you have a low
view of God and you have a low view of His law and His holiness.
Low opinions of marriage are due to low opinions of what marriage
signifies. And that is the eternal union
of Christ and His people, His love for them. He left His Father,
remember? And He gave Himself up. He emptied
Himself and made Himself of no reputation. And it was the price
of His precious blood for His people that redeemed His wife
out of all iniquity. And so marriage signifies the
loving submission of Christ's people to Him and His eternal
love for them. And this is a holy love. This
is not a love of getting. This is a love of giving. That's
what love is pretended to be. No matter where you see it and
look today, love is lust. I see it, I want it, I love it.
No, that's not love at all. You see it all the time. People
use that, oh, I love it. I love it. What you're meaning
is I like it, I want it for myself. That's not what love is. Unless there's holiness, there
is no love. There is no love apart from the holiness of God.
If God was not holy, then His almighty power would be tyranny. If God was not holy, then His
justice would be merciless. If God was not holy, then His
love would not be love. It would be overlooking sin.
But God is holy. Everything in God fits together
and there's no compromise. There's no shadow. It's all light.
God's love is Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, giving Himself. And He gave His Son. This was
a holy love. God did this. And the second
reason I think that God mentions divorce here, as I said, is to
humble, proud, sinful man who would presume That God, He had
God's favor when He was actually breaking God's heart, His law. And so we see that here. So the
second question I have is, well then, what is God's mind concerning
or regarding divorce? What does God think about divorce? Well, look at Malachi, just before
Matthew in the Old Testament, the last book, Malachi chapter
2. He says, and I'm not going to
go through all the verses here from verse 10 and following,
but basically what was happening in this context is the people
of Israel, they had wives, and yet they were taking additional
wives to themselves, not just other wives, but wives who were
of an idolatrous nation, and their first wives, their legitimate
legal wives, were pouring out their complaint to God on His
altar, And God corrects them for this. And He says, I'll just
read through this, it says, in Malachi chapter 2, He says, Verse 11, "...Judah has dealt
treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holiness
of the Lord, which he loved, and has married the daughter
of a strange god." Now, historically, they took daughters of strange
gods. In other words, daughters who
were not Israelites, who served idols. They took them to be their
wives, or maybe their concubines. But in the time of Jesus, the
abomination they committed is that the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the holiness of God, they rejected and crucified. Verse
12. The Lord will cut off the man
that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles
of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of
hosts. And this have you done again, covering the altar of
the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out insomuch
that He regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with
good will at your hand." In other words, the way I understand this
is that It doesn't matter who you are, verse 12, if you do
this, God's going to not hear you. He's not going to receive
your offering. You've made your legitimate wives cry out to God
at the altar, and God is not hearing your prayers. That's
what it says in 1 Peter 3, 7. If you don't live with your wife
as joint heirs of the grace of God, the grace of life, then
God isn't going to hear your prayers. Verse 14. Yet you say,
wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously." To deal treacherously means they've
either divorced them or they've taken, in polygamy, they've taken
another wife. Yet is she thy companion and
the wife of thy covenant. God has given us our wives as
our closest companion in a covenant of marriage. And did not He make
one? That means in the beginning God
made one man and one woman, as we've already said. Yet had He
the residue of the Spirit... This is a complicated phrase.
I'm not sure quite what it means. I think it means that God could
have made more than one. And wherefore one? Why did God
just make one wife for one man? That he might seek a godly seed. 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."
You see that? God hates divorce. And I bring
all that to our attention here because this is God's mind about
divorce. God hates divorce. Now we might
think, oh man, like the disciples, that really limits me. That takes
away a lot of liberties. I thought I had something that's
been taken away and now I feel like I've been deprived. I've
got this degree of freedom that's been removed from me. I can't
divorce my wife and now life is constrained and I'm not happy
anymore. That's the way we think about
God's laws, isn't it? But listen, if God didn't hate divorce, where
would you be? You would be divorced by God
in an instant. Aren't you glad God hates divorce?
So we need to understand these things. God condemns the act,
not only the act of divorce, but God condemns the thought
of divorce. And in the law, in Deuteronomy
24, Jesus said the reason God spoke these things in commandment
to you was because of the hardness of your heart. If God hates divorce,
why did he give divorce? because of the hardness of our
hearts. And we see this, first of all,
because if a man takes a wife and he gets tired of her, or
doesn't like her, and he's looking for an excuse to get rid of her,
And let's say there was no way for him to get rid of her. What
do you think he's going to do? He's going to treat her like
a slave. He's going to kick her. He's bigger than her. He's stronger
than her. He's going to make a mess of
her life. And she's going to be constrained to do whatever
he says emotionally and physically and in every way possible. He's
going to make her life hell. And God is merciful to the wife
and says, If you find some uncleanness, then you can write her a bill
of divorcement and send her out, and she can become another man's
wife. And so that's what Moses did. That was because of the
hardness of their hearts. If God hadn't given this law,
first of all, then men would so abuse the wife that they hated. God's bound us together. I can't
get rid of her. It's like a ball and chain. Have you ever heard
songs like that? It's a ball and chain. Marriage, just like
a ball and chain. How many off-color jokes do you
hear about marriage? My wife is just a ball and chain.
You're the ball and chain. That's the reason. You're in
bondage to sin. That's the reason she's a ball
and chain because you're looking for everything she can do for
you instead of what you can do for her. And it becomes a burden
to you because you don't want to love and you reveal the iniquity
of your heart. So that's the first thing, that
divorce was given in the law. Why did God give it if He hates
it? Because it was given, first of all, because He knows that
men are sinful. Men couldn't tolerate the fact that they had
no out, and having no out, they would mistreat their wives, and
maybe even murder their wives, and it would become a problem.
And who knows what would happen? So He gave them that. And He
also knows this. Not only Because if a man physically
or mentally has already divorced his wife, he's going to begin
to treat her that way and belittle her and make her feel like dirt.
And that's no way to be. But the other thing is that men
can't forgive. He sees some little thing that
she's done wrong. She didn't turn the lights out
at the right time. She's not saving electricity. And so, oh
man, I don't know. These things begin to build up
pretty soon. He mounts up and he comes down
on her for nothing. Some trivial thing unloads on
her. It's because he can't forgive.
The hardness of your heart, you can't forgive. And so he says,
because of those things, let her go. But there's a bigger
one. There's a much bigger one. And I want you to see this, because
this is, I think, the most significant thing that is meant here when
Jesus says, because of the hardness of your heart. And I want you
to see this from Scripture in a couple of ways. Look at this
in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. And this is
going to get us closer to the gospel in this matter of divorce,
which we need to understand. I've already intimated it when
I said, if God hates divorce, Then we see the faithfulness
of our God in his relationship to his sinful people. But in
Romans chapter 1, he says that God has shown himself to
every man, woman, boy and girl. Everyone born into the world
knows that there is a God and that they are accountable to
him. In verse 18 of Romans 1, the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who do what? They hold, they suppress
the truth they know in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is made known, is manifest in them, for God has showed it
to them. If God shows you something, do
you know it? You bet your bottom dollar, you know it. And he says,
for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of
God. being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."
Listen, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him
not as God, neither were thankful, all that they should have given
to God in praise, in crediting Him for what He has done in their
lives, giving them bread and all these things, food and breath
and drink and everything they need and good things in life,
blessing them. They weren't thankful for them. But they became vain in their
imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Everything
they thought about was wrong and empty and purposeless. That's
what it means, vain in their imaginations. It was wrong. professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. And they changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into what? An image made like to corruptible
man, to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. In
other words, they took what they knew about God and they traded
it for idolatry. They traded the truth for idolatry. Do you see that? Wherefore God
also did what? He gave them up to uncleanness
through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into
a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forever. For this cause, God did what? He gave them up unto vile affections. for even their women to change
the natural use into that which is against nature likewise also
the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly
and receiving in themselves that compensation that recompense
of their error which was meat which was fitting even as they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them
up to a reprobate mind Gave them up. Gave them up. Gave them up. It said three times there. What
is God saying here? That the entire human race committed
spiritual adultery against God. And God gave them up. To what? to whatever was in their
hearts. He turned them over to their
passions, to their appetites, to their idolatry, to the blindness
of their hearts and their minds and their understandings, to
the falsehood they chose to believe instead of the truth. He let
them believe it and go on in it. This is true for the entire human
race. This is the compensation for
departing from God and treating Him like exchanging Him for an
idol. But now look at Romans chapter
9. Romans chapter 9. Remember, why is this law given? Because of the hardness of our
hearts, Jesus says. Why did God give up the people
in Romans 1? Because they traded the truth
of God for idolatry and committed spiritual adultery in doing so. And here in Romans chapter 9,
he reveals something. I'm just going to go to verse
24. Actually, I should read, I've
got to read verse Well let's read, I'm just going
to plow right in here. Verse 24 to the end of the chapter.
Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles, as he saith also in Hosea, or Osea, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved, and it shall come to pass, that in the
place where it was said to them, not my people, you are not my
people, there shall they be called the children of the living God." Isn't that amazing? We haven't
connected it yet. But I want you to go back to
Hosea now. Hold your place in Romans 9 or put something there
because we're going to come back and finish reading that. Now
go to Hosea. Hosea is right after Daniel. I'm telling myself that
so I'll remember how to get there. Daniel, then Hosea. And look at Hosea chapter one. The hardness of your hearts.
Why did God allow divorce? Because of the hardness of your
hearts. Chapter 1, verse 1. The Word of the Lord came to
Hosea during all the times of these different kings. He lived
a long time and prophesied a long time. Verse 2. The beginning
of the Word of the Lord by Hosea. The word Hosea, the name means
Joshua. Joshua means God's, God is the
Savior. God is Jehovah Saves. This is
Jesus, Joshua. Hosea is a prophet who signified
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, Jesus,
the name is the same name as Joshua in the Old Testament.
This is Jesus, prophecy by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
he's teaching us here. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said to Hosea, Go, listen to
what God told him to do, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms
and children of whoredoms, for the land hath committed great
whoredom. How? Departing from the Lord. Do you see that? What did we
just read in Romans 1? Idolatry is turning from the
truth of God turning to idols, that's departing from the Lord,
that's exactly what Israel did, and God calls it whoredoms. So
he went, Hosea went, took Gomer, the daughter of Debalaim, which
conceived and bare him a son, and the Lord said, Call his name
Jezreel, for yet a little while will I avenge the blood of Jezreel
upon the house of Ehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of
the house of Israel. Look at the last phrase of that
verse I just read. God says he's going to cause to cease the kingdom
of the house of Israel. Alright? That means the nation
of Israel, the kingdom of the nation of Israel is going to
cease. That sounds like putting away to me. And it shall come
to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the
valley of Jezreel." To break the bow means to take away their
weapons, to remove their defenses and their offenses. They have
no power against the enemy. God's going to do this. That's
the first thing He does in our lives spiritually. He removes
all of our defenses. Have you ever had your bow broken?
And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said
unto her, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah. For I will no more have mercy
upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away."
What does her name mean, Lo-Ruhamah? We would say it like this, No
mercy. Come here, no mercy. My little
girl. No mercy. God is not going to
have... Can you imagine having a name
like that? No mercy. Hosea's little girl, no mercy. Every time he said it, it reminded
him, God is not going to have mercy anymore on the house of
Israel. But I will have mercy upon the
house of Judah, and it will save them by the Lord their God. It
will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor
by horses, nor by horsemen. God's going to save one. He's
not going to save the other. What is that teaching us? God
has a remnant. It says, and we're going to read
this a little later in Romans 9, because God has a remnant,
therefore we're saved. And so then he goes on, now when
she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, which means no mercy, she conceived
and bear a son and then God said call his name Lo-Ami. For you
are not my people, and I will not be your God." Here's a second
child, a son. And this one is not clear whether
it was Hosea's or another man's son. But God says, call his name
Luami. Not my people. No mercy! Not my people! Time for dinner. Yet the number of the children
of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered, and it shall come to pass that in the place where
it was said to them, not my people, you are not my people, there
shall it be said to them, you are the sons of the living God."
Now that's mercy, isn't it? That's mercy. Now go back, hold
your finger in Hosea, because we're going to come back there
and look at Romans 9 again. Romans 9, because this is where it was
taken from. That's where the quote was taken from, Romans
9. And he says, in verse 25 again, verse 24, "...even us whom he
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
Who are these? Who are these that he says are
the vessels of mercy? Those who he has called, not
of Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. So let me put it together
for you here. Out of all humanity, God says,
they've all sinned, they've all gone astray. All of them deserve
to be given over to their own heart's lust. And God says specifically
to the house of Israel, to that kingdom of Israel, that nation,
that physical nation, you have gone whoring. You've gone after
other gods and I'm going to separate. I'm not going to have mercy on
you. You're not my people. But then he turns in the same
place and he says, but in the very place where it was said
to them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God. Verse 24, Romans 9, "...even
us whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles, as he said also in Hosea, I will call them my people
which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved.
It will come to pass that in the place where it was said to
them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God." And Isaiah also cried concerning
Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as
the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish
the work and cut it short in righteousness, because a short
work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said
before, except the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Sabaoth, had left
us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah.
You see what God is saying here? God has chosen a people out of
Jews and Gentiles and he's called them my people and he has had
mercy on them even though out of the lump of all humanity to
all of them it was said not my people, no mercy. Yet God in
Christ has shown mercy and called his people out of that group
called the elect of God, the chosen of God, those he's had
mercy on. And he says, to these, even though,
like the others, they committed adultery, even though, like them,
they deserve to be divorced, God is saying, I'm not going
to divorce them. They are my people. I'm never,
I hate divorce. I'll never separate from them.
Look at Hosea, back at Hosea chapter 2 now. Hosea chapter
2. I'm sorry, chapter 3. I'm reading over where, yes,
actually it is in chapter two. We could read all this, but we
don't have time. He says in chapter two, verse 19. And I will betroth
thee unto me. To betroth means to bring you
to me as my wife, to commit myself to you and you to me. He says,
and I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in lovingkindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord." See that? Look at Jeremiah. Hold your place
there in Hosea still, but look back in Jeremiah chapter 3. What
God is saying here in the tenderness And the faithfulness and his
commitment and his covenant to his people is beyond words. It says here in Jeremiah chapter
3, Verse 1, they say, if a man put away his wife, and she go
from him, and become another man's, shall he return to her
again? Shall not that land be greatly
polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, many idols, yet God says to his
people, return again to me, saith the Lord. Do you see that? Isn't
that mercy? And look in the same chapter, in verse 14. Turn, O backsliding children,
saith the Lord, for I am married to you, and I will take you,
one of a city, two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion,
and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding, and it shall come to pass when
you be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith
the Lord. They shall no more say... I didn't need to go that
far. I just wanted to make that point.
You see what God is saying there? How do we know? How do we know
here? He said, you will know me. He's
gonna take you, one of a city, two of a family, and bring you
to Zion. How do we know the Lord? We know him in this way. We're
taught through the gospel of his sovereign grace. Every child
of God knows this. They in themselves have played
the harlot. And in their hearts, a thousand
times, have done so, even every day. But the faithfulness of
our beloved husband, and according to his tender mercies, he would
not divorce us, he would not put us away. He has betrothed
us to himself forever. God hates putting away. And so,
because of the hardness of their hearts, God put them away because
he would put away those who will only outwardly profess to be
his people, but he would not put away his wife forever. Well,
I've gone way far beyond my time, and I apologize for that. But
I'm somewhere in the middle here, and I need to stop. So I've got
to bring this to a close. I just looked at the clock. I'm
sorry. There are some legitimate reasons for divorce. I just want
to touch on these briefly. Jesus gave it here. He says,
for the cause of fornication, a man can put away his wife. But let me ask this. Does God
require divorce for the cause of fornication? Does He require
it? And the answer is absolutely not. Because my spouse or your
spouse has committed adultery, it doesn't mean you're required
to put them away. God didn't put away His wife, and she was
an adulterous wife. So there's the pattern. And can
a divorced spouse remarry? Well, that's kind of getting
into complicated areas. It seems to me, if you look at
1 Corinthians 7, there's another reason for divorce that God allows,
where the unbelieving spouse departs from the believing spouse,
and in such cases the marriage is broken, and the believing
spouse is not bound. So I would say that in those
two cases, both for fornication and for the unbelieving spouse
deserting the believing spouse, that they're no longer bound
in the marriage, But I want you to make sure that you understand
how the gospel is seen in divorce, because here we've seen it. We
must continually recognize what we are and our need for Christ
to do for us what we cannot do. We must realize that we and ourselves
are sinners, and we are to look nowhere else for acceptance and
for peace and assurance but to Christ and His blood. Nowhere
else for a covering for our shamefulness, our lewdness as adulterous wives,
but to His righteousness alone. And we come to God and worship
Him as sinners, and we look to Christ alone for everything.
And that's the way we come, is by faith. And we have to know that because
if we live our lives without faith, we're just living in hypocrisy. Marriage means nothing unless
we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And one last thing here. I want to just close with this
quickly because I don't want to leave this on the table. How
should we treat believers who are divorced and remarried? How should we treat them? I know
as I was growing up, the church would say, well, if you've been
divorced and remarried, then you can't hold an office in the
church. Or if you're divorced and remarried, then you can't
do that. I mean, what are we going to
do? We're going to start screening people out. Have you been divorced?
How many times? Did you get married? Was it a legitimate reason? The
pastor starts examining things. We start holding a council. The
business meeting comes out. We decide who can be part of
the church, who's secondary. I mean, the whole thing. How
should we treat people who've been divorced and remarried?
Just like we treat everybody, as sinners, saved by the grace
of God. Here's the amazing thing to me.
When Jesus was on the earth, you know the type of people who
hung out with him? Harlots, publicans, sinners. Paul said it this way, I love
this verse. This is a faithful saying. Oh, you harlots and publicans
and sinners. This is a faithful saying. That
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. And who am I? to judge another
man's servant. To his own master he stands or
falls. No, there's no difference between believers. We've all
committed adultery in our hearts a thousand times a day. And that's what the Spirit of
God teaches us. He has taken us for himself forever and bound
himself to us with eternal love. We were auctioned. worn out,
lewd, worthless, harlots, adulterous wives. And he paid the price
of his own blood to buy us back for himself. The one who made
us has also bought us with a great price. And that's the gospel
of divorce. We deserve to be divorced, but
Christ is faithful and bought us out of it. Let's pray. Thank
you, Lord, that you bought us out of the auction block of our
own sinfulness and idolatry and adultery and lewdness and shamefulness
and all the filth that we are. Purchased us with your own blood
and not just purchased us, but clothed us with your glorious
garments of righteousness so that we stand before God in perfect
beauty, the beauty of your holiness, no spot, no wrinkle, nothing
like that. where most men would seek a wife
who was pure. You sought a wife requiring to
lay your life down to purchase us out of this iniquitous lifestyle
and idolatrous heart that we have and brought us to yourself. Lord, woo us and cause us to
see with admiration and adoration what you've done for us. Help
us to know that it's because you hate divorce that we're not
put away. and help us to bow before you as a wife who has
nothing to say, but has been loved by a faithful husband,
even though in herself she's ugly, but her husband is all
glorious. And thank you, Lord, that you've
given us your own beauty. What a Savior, what a God. Thank
you for this marriage, Lord. Help us to live with one another.
in carefulness, in awesome respect for your holiness, and not live
shamefully, but to the glory of God. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.