Okay, let's look at this subject
this morning. I put it off last week. It's
a subject on marriage and divorce. So the subject this morning is
of great importance. It's a subject that has caused
a lot of debate over the years, over the centuries. Many people
throw their opinions out about it. But my opinion about it means
nothing. My opinion means nothing about
it, really, if it's not in line with God's word. What does God's
word say about this? What does his word say about
it? See, this is what happens when you go verse by verse. Verse
by verse, you take the word of God, what it says about every
subject. And you know, if you take Genesis,
we've been going through Genesis. You go through Revelations, you're
going to cover every subject possible. Every subject possible
is going to be covered. The scriptures are always relative
to our day. Always. They're never outdated.
This is not an outdated book. It's as good as if it was just
written right now. It's God's Word. So what does His Word say
about it? God's Word is not just an opinion. It's law. It is law. Whatever His Word says on any
subject is right. It's not up for debate. It's
never up for debate. It's right. And His Word settles
the matters of all opinions. His Word settles it. So we'll look at this this morning,
and I want you to note, and this kind of stood out to me as I
read this over and over this week and last week, the one who
is speaking, the one who is giving his judgment on this matter of
marriage and divorce is the God of creation. This is Almighty
God speaking here this morning. And this is how it is. This is
the law giver. He's not the interpreter. He's
the giver. He's the giver of the law. He's
the giver of his word. He's not just the interpreter
of it. So let's look at this. Verses
one and two. Our Lord was always about his
father's business. He was in Galilee. And now he
was leaving there and he was going to go to the coast of Judea
beyond Jordan. Always, always about his father's
business. When he finished his business
in one area, he would pack up and go to another area. And there
he would meet sinners. Sinners in need of mercy. Sinners
in need of healing. And it says he healed them there.
He went to where they were and healed them there. Always about
his father's business. Working tirelessly. Not worrying
about rest. Not worrying about a break. You know, I've worked in the
factories over the years. I've shopped. A man may forget
to do a certain thing to a job. He may forget to clean up his
area. He never forgets a break. I can promise you he never forgets
a break. Never forgets his lunch break.
I never forgot mine. Never forgets that ten minutes
before or after break. Gary's already looking at his
watch. He's got me on break. Never! Our Lord worked tirelessly. He wore himself out. He wore
himself. So the next time you're tired,
And you really don't feel like coming. Just remember how tirelessly
He worked in accomplishing our redemption. Alright, verse 3. The Pharisees
came to Him. Listen, tempting Him. Tempting
Him. Not to learn of Him. Take my yoke and learn of me,
He said over in Matthew 11. But to tempt Him. Not to learn
from Him. They really didn't come to learn
about divorce or marriage. They did not come to learn. They
came to entrap Him. Trying to find a reason that
they could have against Him to condemn Him. That's what they
came for. They came, it says, to tempt
Him. As the Scripture says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. But they came to tempt Him. And they came with the intent
of trapping him in his teachings, especially concerning the law
of Moses. They wanted to trap him in this.
So they asked him this question which was very prevalent in that
day. Divorce just as prevalent then
as it is now. And they came to him to ask him
if it were lawful if it were right for a man to put away his
wife for every cause. See, there were two schools of
thought at that time. There was one that was liberal
for every cause. I'm not going to try to even
pronounce the names of those schools. And there was one that
had serious causes. They held to that. So they were
going to trap him and get one of those schools against him. But our Lord is the wisdom of
God. You're not going to trap wisdom with foolishness. He's
the wisdom of God. What they had hoped to do was
to turn the multitude against Him no matter what the cause
was. That's what they were after. They didn't care about this subject,
this important subject. You don't know the importance
of this subject and what marriage represents. Christ and the church. And what divorce does, and what
it does to the family, what it does to the community, what it
does to a whole nation when it's rampant. They didn't care. They didn't care at all. All
they cared about was getting Him in trouble. But how does
He answer them? How does our Lord handle this?
How does He answer them? As He always did with the Word
of God. That's how we handle these things.
That's how we handle all matters, no matter what they are. We handle
it with the Word of God. Have ye not read? Have ye not read? He challenges their knowledge
of the Scripture. Yes, you have read. That's what
he says. You have read this. You pay no
attention to it. You give no thought to it, but
you have read it. Why do you believe what you believe? Why do you? You ever sit down
and just really think about that? Why do you really believe? Why
do you believe the gospel you believe? Is it because it's revealed
in God's Word? Is that why? Did you read it
in His Word? If you've read it in His Word,
believe it. Embrace it. Cling to it. If not, leave it alone. If not,
don't believe it. The Word of God is to be followed
at all times under all circumstances. At all times. Now, verses 4 through 6. Our
Lord, He said to them, have you not read? And then He takes them
back to Genesis. He takes them back to the beginning
of creation. When God first made Adam and
Eve. And here's why He's saying, This
is the way it is. This is the way it is. He takes
them back to the beginning of creation when God made Adam and
Eve and joined them together, bonded them together. When He
says those two shall be one flesh, that has reference to it like
glue. You take two pieces of wood and
you bond it together. You glue it together. He said,
don't let them be separated. God has bonded the husband and
wife together. And that's what he says here.
He joined them together. You notice he passes up Moses.
They were going to talk about Moses. They were going to trap
him here. And he passes that up and goes to the beginning. He
takes him back to God. Creation. God made them, therefore
all men and women are subject to Him and His commands. And
He says He made them male and female. He made them for each
other. God took Eve out of Adam's side
and then brought her to Adam, and those two, He said, became
one flesh. They were one. One in interest,
one in worship, before the fall, they were one. Inseparable. Inseparable. They were one. Marriage was instituted by God
for the overall good, not just of the church, but the whole
human race. This is one institution that affects the whole human
race. It affects the whole human race. God said it is not good
that man should be alone, that the man, that Adam, should be
alone. So God made him what? A helpmate. A helpmate. One that he could become one
with. And they would be together. And they would be joined together.
And they would be together for life. They were to be together
for life. Families, societies, nations
are the better and stronger were marriages. Good marriages. The way marriage is taught in
the scriptures now. Not the way it's taught out here in the world.
Not at all. Where you find strong marriage
values, based on the Word of God, you'll find a strong community. You'll find strong families.
You'll find higher moral values in a community. Where you find
this, You find this. And this marriage, our Lord is
teaching, here's what our Lord is teaching now. Our Lord is
teaching that it's to be for life. He says it's to be for
life. Because it represents the Lord
Jesus Christ and the church. You know, you take everything
in creation, everything that's made, If we had eyes to see,
if we had understanding, we would see a relationship between it
and Christ. Somehow, someway. Because how
many times did our Lord take things of creation and give heavenly
teachings from it? All the time. All of His parables,
all the time. So Paul used this, Paul used
it over in Ephesians chapter 5. We need to turn over to Ephesians
5 and read what Paul has to say about this. Now, Paul says in verse 21 of
Ephesians 5, he says, Submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of God. He says, Why submit yourselves
unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, because the Lord is
the one who gave the husband. You know what? Husband means
it used to be called house bond. House bond. He was the bond of
that house. He was the one, he was the leader
that was to keep that house together. That's what house bond. Now we
call it husband, but house bond. To keep that house together,
husband, that's your responsibility. That's your responsibility. Husbands,
it's your responsibility to keep that house together. You're the
house bond. You're the glue that holds that house together. And he said, for the husband
is the head of the wife. God made it that way. Is that
all right? Is that all right? If God made
it that way, that's all right, isn't it? I'll tell you this,
a heart that's been broken A wife is glad to have a son. Glad to have a son. Even as Christ is the head of
the church. You see the relation here. The
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of
the church. And he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
under Christ, Can you imagine a church not being subject to
Christ? Can you imagine a local assembly,
we've come together here this morning, not being subject to
Christ? Not being subject, listen, to
His Word, His teachings, His instructions? That's being subject
to Him, isn't it? Being subject to Him, being subject
to His Word. He says, therefore, as a church
is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands,
in everything as the church is to Christ. It's a picture of
Him, of our relationship to Him. Husbands, now husbands, love
your wives. If we are able to do this, how
beautiful it will be. How beautiful that relationship
will be. How beautiful that home will be. Husbands, love your
wives. Take care of your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church in the same way. And how did He love the church?
He loved the church so much, He gave Himself for it. He took care of her. He took care of her. He gave Himself for it. And that's the way the husband
is to do it. You give yourself to taking care of your wife.
Now, we don't put anything before Christ. We know that. We understand
that. But we give ourselves to taking
care of our wives. Not the other way around. Not the other way around. That He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present
it to Himself A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. Love your wife like you love
yourself. You take care of yourself. He said, take care of your wife
like you take care of yourself. He that loves his wife loves
himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes
and cherishes and takes care of it, even as the Lord of the
church. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones. For this cause shall a man leave his..." Now he's going
to quote what our Lord is quoting. He's going to quote Genesis.
"...For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother..."
Father and mother are to leave them alone. I tell you what, there have been
a lot of divorces caused by just meddling parents. Can't keep their nose out of
the business. For this call shall a man leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Quit running
back home. You can go back and visit. You can go back and say hello
and honor your mother and father. But you've separated now. We'll
see a little more of this. I'm getting ahead of myself.
And they too shall be what? One flesh. One flesh. And I tell you what, if you become
one flesh, if you cut any part of this off, it's going to hurt,
isn't it? It'll be devastating. It'll be devastating. This is
a great mystery. A great mystery. Isn't this a
mystery? It's a great mystery. But I speak
concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of
you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the
wife see that she reverence her husband. Now, that's the union that is
between Christ and the church. And Paul says that the marriage
we have with one another is an example
of that. It's an example of it. And they
too shall be one flesh." They cannot be separated. That is,
no man can just put that asunder. No man can just say, okay, well,
it's over. Well, that's just not that easy. Just not that
easy. We cannot be separated from Christ.
Aren't you glad of that? I'm so glad we cannot be separated
from our Lord. Not at all. He says in Hosea
2, 19 and 20, I have betrothed thee forever. Even though you've played the
harlot, he says, I've betrothed you forever. Over there in Hosea. In Romans 8, who shall separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Who shall
separate us? Nothing. Nothing can make that
separation. You know, Moses, when he gave
that law over in Deuteronomy 4, verse 1, if they gave her
a bill of divorcement and she left, she was not to come back. But you know what the Lord says
in Jeremiah 31? Let me read that to you. I wrote it down here.
Let me read both of them to you. Let me read them both. This is,
O the grace of God to us. When a man, over in Deuteronomy
24, when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come
to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath
found some uncleanness in her. And he's talking about their
fornication, adultery. Of course, they change it into
every cause. And I read this. If a man found
or saw a woman that was better looking than his wife, he could
dump the one he had. Just so easily. She could burn
the biscuits. Gone. That's how bad it became
for every cause. Here he said, Moses wrote this
because he had found some uncleanness in her. She's guilty of this
fornication. Then let him write her a bill
of divorcement, give it in her hand, and send her out of his
house. And when she's 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."
She's been with another man, married to another man. "'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.'" Now listen to Jeremiah. In Jeremiah
chapter 3, they say, if a man put away his
wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall she
return unto him again? Well, Moses said what? His command
was what? No. Shall not that land be greatly
polluted? Yes. It will be greatly polluted.
But thou hast played the harp with many lovers, God said. Yet
return. Yet return. Oh, I tell you what,
the law just slays us, doesn't it? The law slays us, but grace
and mercy says return. It says return. You say, I'm
guilty. Oh, man, I feel so... If you read the Word of God,
you're going to become guilty. You're going to read through
here and say, oh, I've done that. Man, I've fought that. Guilty. Return again to me, saith the
Lord. Return. Lift up thine eyes unto the high
place. Return! Oh, I'm so thankful. Alright,
back to this. This is the closest union that
there is. This is what our Lord is saying.
One flesh. One flesh. For this call shall
a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they
too shall not be independent. They'll not be independent of
each other. It doesn't matter. Husband, you're the head of the
wife. You're the head of that home. You're the head of the
house. I don't care if your wife makes
a zillion dollars. You're the head of it. And you
guide it. And you direct it. And then he says, For this call
shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his
wife, and they too shall be one flesh. The son is to leave his
parents. He's to leave home. He's to leave
his house. Their authority has set up their
own home, and he's become the head of it. And here's what the
Lord's saying. Here's what he's saying. The bond and the ties between
a husband and wife is greater than that of parent and child. That's serious, isn't it? He
said that bond of a husband and wife is greater than the bond
between a parent and the child. You don't ever read where a son
and father become one flesh. Or a daughter, mother, daughter,
mother, father become one. No. You don't read that. A husband
and wife, he says, have become one. They're stronger. And that's why I was saying,
they have their own homes, so stay out of the business. Stay
out of the business. It's not easy always, is it? You'll find out. It's not the
easiest thing to do, especially when there's trouble going on.
What if they come to you? They come to you for advice.
Give them advice. Talk to them. But don't be kicking down the
door saying this is the way it's supposed to be, ought to be,
should be. No, it's their home. They've got to take care of it. Sometimes it's tough not to do
that. But it's their home. Therefore,
what God has joined together... Now, do you know who joined them
together? God. It doesn't say, therefore, what
the preacher has joined together, let the judge separate. But God
has joined together. For God has joined together,
let not man put asunder. I don't care if he is a judge. This shows that God is the one
who joins men and women together in matrimony. We stand before
God, make those vows before God, and only God can dissolve them.
Only God can truly do that. That's what our Lord is saying.
He said, in the beginning, it wasn't so. God didn't give that
to you. That's why He says, God did not give you this bill of
divorcement. But you see here, they said, then why did Moses
command to give a writing of divorcement? Over there in Deuteronomy
chapter 24. Why did he do this? You notice
who they said gave it? You notice who the Lord said
gave it? He said Moses. Here's what He's saying. Moses gave this command and allowed
this matter of divorcement to happen. You know why he did that? To keep men from killing their
wives. They were such a stiff-necked people. They were such a rebellious
people that Moses said in order to cut down on murder, in order
to cut down on spousal abuse, he gave this commandment. to
separate. He allowed it, is what he said.
There are things that are allowed at times, but it doesn't make
it right, does it? God allowed Adam to sin. Does that make sin right? No. No. I bet they wish they hadn't
asked this question. You get a straight answer and
they say, well, I wish we hadn't asked that one. Moses allowed
it for the time because of the hardness of the heart. He said, God didn't give this
to you. Moses allowed it, but God didn't give it to you. The man shall plead to his wife,
it says. There's something else you notice
here. Just like I was talking about things God allowed. When
God made Adam, when he created Adam, he created Eve. One woman, one wife. He didn't
create Eves. He didn't create a lot of Eves.
He created one wife. And that's the way it was to
be. One man and one wife. At a time. It's not one wife
at a time. I know that David And Solomon
and some of these others had more than one wife. God allowed that. That's not
the way it was in the beginning. And for years, from the beginning,
it was the man and the wife. But God allowed it. That didn't
make it right. Because He allowed it. You know,
right never becomes right. I mean, never becomes wrong.
And wrong never becomes right. A lie is a lie even if Rahab
tells it. You say, well, Rahab told a lie.
Well, God put that away just like He did all their other sins. A lie is a lie even if she tells
it. A lie is a lie if a believer tells it. It's just under the
blood. That doesn't make an excuse for it. It's just put away. Just
like when David committed adultery. There was no sacrifices given
at that time for that. He committed adultery and a murder.
And there was no sacrifices given, but Nathan said, the Lord put
your sin away. It's been taken care of. It's
been put away, even though you're guilty of it. You say, well, the New Testament
teaches one wife, but the Old Testament teaches you can have
more than one. No, it doesn't. It's the same book. It's the
same book. It's just that there were some
things allowed, just like Adam was allowed to sin. Moses, he
said, allowed this commandment of divorcement. He allowed it.
He gave it. And as usual, men abuse what's
allowed. Solomon had 700 wives. How wise
is that? How wise is that? Go read what
he did. Start building altars to their
God and letting them worship other gods and idols. He'd have been a whole lot better
off if he'd have stuck with the woman. However, the Lord gives one reason here.
He does give one reason for divorce. And He calls it fornication.
It's called uncleanness. Adultery, whatever. That's what
we call it also. Unfaithfulness. That's what it's
for. And He allowed this. He allowed
it, He said. And He mentions it. He allows
it for this reason. And Paul tells us over in 1 Corinthians
7.15, if the unbelieving depart, the believer is not under bondage.
God is not going to allow a rebel to hold his children in bondage. He's not going to let that happen. In that situation, he said the
believer is not under bondage. not under bondage to that person.
If they're going to depart, they're going to depart. And there's
nothing you can do about it. You can try everything in the
world to stop it from happening, but if they depart, they depart. And that believer is free. Free
from that bond. Well, the disciples said, if
you cannot divorce for every cause, except for this one cause
of unfaithfulness, fornication, uncleanness, then it's better
off not to marry than to be stuck with a bad wife. That's what
they're saying. They said, well, it's better
off not to marry then if you've got to be stuck with her for
50 years. And the Lord said, not all men
can receive that. Not all men can receive that,
that saying. You see, this is the exaggeration
of the extreme to the other way. Some have the gift of what we
call celibacy. Some haven't. Most don't. Most
don't. And the Lord said those that
don't, let them marry. That's what Paul said to Adam
and Eve. Let them marry. And he says over here, let me
find my place. All men, he said in verse 11,
but he said to them, all men cannot receive this saying except
they to whom it's given. For there are some eunuchs which
were born from their mother's womb. I believe he's talking
there probably about some kind of birth defect, some problem
in that area that they could not fulfill a marriage responsibility. And there are some eunuchs which
were made of eunuchs of men. In other words, they were slaves. And they used to practice castration. Especially a king would take
some men and make eunuchs out of them and put them over his
harem. That's what he'd do. And he would castrate them. And
that's what the Lord's saying. And then there'd be eunuchs which
have made themselves eunuchs for the king of heaven's sake.
There are some who truly, like the Apostle Paul, totally sold
out. And that's not saying those are
married or not. He was just dedicated to Christ. He didn't need to
be married. God, listen, God made him that
way. I'm not going to feel less holy
because I'm not that way. God made him that way. It says,
for the kingdom of heaven's sake, God made him that way. It was
God who gave that to him. He that is able to receive it,
then let him receive it. Now here's the message. What
God has joined together, let not man put asunder. Let him
not destroy the work of God. You see, he puts this on a much
higher level than us dealing with each other. You know, I
always, I always thought, you know, just so strange that we
want to go before the preacher and we want to take the marriage
vows. And then all of a sudden when
it's over with, we don't slip down to the courthouse, send a judge,
actually send a lawyer down there in your place. You send the lawyer
down your place and then they just, you know, you're, that's
just a, that's, go before God. Go before the one whom you took
the vow before. Go before God. Go before Him. You notice they
never want to go back to the church. They never want to go
back to the preacher. Don't send some lawyer down.
That ain't going to happen. That ain't going to happen. No, we want to slip
in and get the dirty work done and slip back out. ignoring the vow that we took
before God Almighty and what God has joined together. He's
saying how serious this matter is, deadly serious. I heard Henry
say this on a tape just a few months ago. He said that's one
of the most dangerous things you'll ever do. He said divorce
is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do. But God has joined together,
not man put asunder. That's the rule. Like I said,
I bet they wish they hadn't asked that question. But I thought
before closing this message, I thought we've all sinned to
come short of God's glory. What am I not guilty of? We've all committed spiritual
adultery, every last one of us. Since we believed. Since we have
believed. You know, I know there's people
that this will smite more than others because of the experience
of it. But, you know, what are we not guilty of? Spiritually. We're all guilty of spiritual
adultery. And after I read this, and I thought this is going to
be a difficult difficult to deal with because it's experienced
by some here and their families. It's just, you know, it's not
easy to deal with. And I thought, I am so thankful
for the blood of the Lamb. I am so thankful. That Christ
died to put away all our sins. All of them. Not just the little ones. I mean
all of them. You see, we catalog sin. But He doesn't. And when He died, He died to put
them all away. and all my sins were future. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful for the Lamb
that takes away the sin of the world. No matter what I read in the
Word of God, and may cup me to the heart, I can go to Him and be cleansed
from all unrighteousness. And then he says on a better
note, let me put this on a better note. I was going to end it there,
but let me put this on. Let's end on a better note here. Of course, I don't know how you
can end on a better note than there's forgiveness with the Lord. But He said, they
were brought unto Him, little children, that He should put
His hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer the little
children and forbid them not to come unto Me, for such is
the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them
and He prayed. and departed. He was not above
the presence of these little children. I thought of our little children
here. And here's the lesson in this
one. Bring your children to hear the gospel. Bring them up under
the gospel. Bring them up under the sound
of mercy. Make them very, very familiar with that name that's
above every name. And bring them to Him in prayer. Hear the word. Bring them to
Him in prayer. Train them up into fear and admonition
of the Lord. Pray for them, just as we did
this morning. Constantly pray for them. For such is the kingdom of heaven.
He says in one place, in the sense that you become like these
little children, you'll not enter the kingdom of heaven. But I'm
not so sure, and I'm not going to try to establish a doctrine
on this, but I'm not so sure that he's
not saying that the kingdom of heaven is mostly made up of those
who die in infancy, in childhood, as children, because very few
people believe. Very few adult people believe
the gospel. And yet the kingdom of heaven
is going to be populated with a number that no man can number. I believe there's a hint of it
there. I believe there's a hint of it there. So while God joins together,
don't let man put us under. Don't let him destroy the work
of God, because he will. And he'll do it without feelings. And he said, you bring your little
children to me. You bring them. And he laid his hand on them,
which was a custom at that time, and he prayed for them. You know, I'd want you to pray
for mine, Ten thousand times rather he do it. Father, I know
You always hear me.