Choose thee Lord, for Lord thy God. Todd's Road Grace Church would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at 9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services. For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.

Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert.

In Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse 31, it had been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. That is a quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse one. Now here's the Lord's comment on this, but I say unto you, I love the way the Lord says that, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. You've heard it said, but I say to you. Here, the law giver gives the meaning of the law. You've heard it said, and he quotes the scripture. But I say unto you, the ultimate authority. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that's divorced committeth adultery." Now those are the words of the Lord.

I've entitled this message, The Marriage with No Divorce. What a difficult thing divorce is for anyone who experiences it. It's a horrible thing. I don't know that by experience, but the people I know who have been divorced say it's worse than death, the things you go through. When I was in grade school, I only remember throughout my classes one child whose parents were divorced. Everybody else had parents who were married, living together. And in our day, divorce has become rampant. Now, I'm not saying the days were better then than they are now. Things are always cyclical and men are always sinful. But when I was growing up, divorce was a scandal. And now it's the given, it's the accepted thing.

Now, marriage is ordained of God. Let me repeat that. This is not a man-made institution. Marriage is ordained of God, the marriage of a man and a woman. As a matter of fact, it was ordained before the fall of Adam. Let me read to you from Genesis chapter two. And the Lord God said, it's not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him." Well, you read in verse 21 of the same chapter, and this actually typifies the gospel, 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 he brought her. unto the man." Can you imagine what a presentation that must have been? Now, like I said, we can see the gospel here, the sleep representing the death of Christ, the church coming out of his death, that rib representing the church, but this is something that literally took place. And I think of this glorious presentation when God presented Adam this woman. And we read in verse 23, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. And they too shall be one flesh." And they were both naked and not ashamed.

Now, here we have the perfect marriage, Adam and Eve. And it is the only perfect marriage because they were not sinners as of yet. They were not selfish. They were not thoughtless. They were not ill-tempered. They were not self-righteous. They were not insecure. They had no faults. The perfect man, the perfect woman, the two most beautiful people to ever live, living together in a state of marital bliss, Adam and Eve.

And then we have the fall. Verse 7 of chapter 3, after Adam ate of the fruit, we read in verse 7, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Ab and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden.

Now, before the fall, they relished being in His presence. Now they hide themselves from his presence. They don't want to be in his presence. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

Now remember, they were naked before the fall and it wasn't an issue, but it becomes an issue after the fall because they now have these sinful fallen natures. And he said, the Lord said, who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, remember this is his wife, this one woman whom he formerly saw as the perfect woman overcome with love for her now after the fall. And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest me. She's the problem and ultimately you're the problem. If you wouldn't have given her to me, this would have never taken place. The woman you gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I did eat.

The perfect marriage is over. The blame game has begun. We read in verse 16, unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he'll rule over thee. The meaning being, you're gonna wanna rule over him, he's gonna rule over you. Oh, the conflict that has began with these two people. And since then, all marriages have been marred by sin. That's the problem in any marriage.

And every one of us have this thing called sin. And there's this thing called divorce that arises out of this thing called sin. You have sinners living together under the same roof and issues will arise. But remember, Marriage is supposed to be forever. When you are married, you vow to be true and faithful one to another until death alone shall part you. In the bad times, in the good times, Marriage is binding. Marriage is forever. That's what marriage was always intended to be. And God said, I hate divorce. Malachi 2, verse 16, these are God's words. He says, I hate divorce. The Lord made marriage and he hates divorce.

I remember one time reading where every marriage goes through five stages. First, you're in love. Then you're raising your kids and you're busy. Then after the kids are gone, all of a sudden you become irritated with one another, perhaps even hating one another. And this is where most divorces take place during this third stage. And if you get through the third stage and get to the fourth stage, you start becoming endeared once again. And the fifth stage, you love one another, as you said, once again. But if you're in that third stage, stick it out, it'll get better. And remember, God said, I hate divorce. And I'm thankful he does say, I hate divorce. Now, I'd like to read this passage that I quoted from Deuteronomy chapter 24. This is where Moses commanded to give a writing of divorcement.

Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 1, when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes. Now the word favor is grace. That's the way it's generally translated. First time the word is used is in Genesis chapter six, verse eight, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

In Genesis chapter six, verse five, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's God's testimony. That's what God says with regard to me and you by nature. Wickedness altogether. Every imagination of the thought of my heart is only evil continually. And Noah was in this group by nature. Noah was just as bad, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

And God said with regard to this man, Noah, in Genesis 7, verse 1, thee have I seen as righteous before me. In this generation that was described as every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. But he says with regard to Noah, thee have I seen, and how God sees things is the way they are. What you and I see, we don't see the truth ever. We don't know things as they really are, but God does. And God says to Noah, thee have I seen as righteous before me in this generation.

Now, the only other way that can be understood is the gospel. God's made the way to be just and justify the ungodly through the work of Christ. That's what he did on Calvary's tree. He made a way for God to be absolutely just, justify somebody, somebody like Noah, who is by nature just as sinful as everybody else, and God says, you're righteous. And if God says you're righteous, there's only one reason he says that, because you are in fact righteous, having the righteousness of Jesus Christ as your personal righteousness before God.

But this man, Somewhere grace left. And when you leave grace, all you see is faults. Now let me read this. 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 has found some uncleanness in her. Something bad, something sinful, some kind of blemish. What's he called upon to do? Let him write her for a bill of divorcement, give it into her hand and send her out of the house.

Now you think of the cruelty of this man. You think of the hardness of this man. She find no grace in his eyes. All he sees is her faults, her blemishes, her uncleanness, some imperfection. What's he called upon to do? Let him write her a bill of divorcement. This word divorcement is taken from the word which means cut off or behead. Cut her off. Get rid of her. Send her out of the house and give her this bill of divorcement so when she marries somebody else it won't be adultery because you have divorced her.

Now remember, marriage is a covenant made between two people. And you take each other at that time until death alone parts you, for better or for worse, sickness and health, poverty, wealth, whatever it might be, you are together forever. So, the Lord reminds them what Moses said in Deuteronomy, he says, but I say unto you, even though Moses, and there's no grace in this. And I understand why the Lord allowed this to happen. What if this man was required to keep this woman by law and couldn't divorce her, he would be so cruel to her. He would be emotionally abusive, he would be verbally abusive, he might even be physically abusive, and he might mistreat this woman terribly. So really it's a mercy of the Lord to give this because of the way this woman could be treated.

But the Lord says with regard to this, I say unto you, I know Moses said that, but I say unto you, whosoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, he causes her to commit adultery. The person that marries her commits adultery. Marriage is forever.

Now I want to turn to a passage in Matthew chapter 19, if you want to follow along, where the Pharisees bring this up to the Lord. Verse three, Matthew chapter 19, The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him. This is one of seven times we read of the Pharisees tempting Christ, trying to entrap him in a speech, trying to get him to contradict himself. These religious, blind zealots had no idea who they were dealing with. They tried to tempt him, trapped him.

And the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read? I love the way he says that. Of course they'd read. They were Pharisees. They studied the scriptures. But he says, Evidently you don't understand the scriptures. Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? We already read about that. And said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother. This is a quotation from Adam in Genesis chapter two. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This intimate act describes the union between the man and the woman. Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

They said unto him, why did Moses then command to give her writing a divorcement and to put her away? It's in the Bible. Why did that happen? And the Lord answered, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives. He knew because of the hardness of your heart, you would mistreat your wife, so it would be better off for her to be let out of this relationship. But from the beginning, it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Now this is how binding marriage is in the Lord's sight. Now, I want to talk about a marriage where there is no divorce. It's the marriage between Christ and his bride, the church, the lamb and his wife. I love that language. In Revelation chapter 21, we read, and I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea, no more separation. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

This is the church, and she's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Christ is the bridegroom. The church is the bride. We read in Revelation chapter 19 verse seven, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb is come. And his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted graciously bestowed and given that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for the fine linen. is the righteousness of the saints.

Now what about this woman's, this bride's garment, her wedding gown? fine linen, clean and white. This is the righteousness of the saints. Now I've, I love the King James version. That's my, that's what I use. I think it's more accurate than the other versions and quite a few of the other translations of the Bible says, this is the right, this fine linen is the righteous acts or the righteous works of the saints.

Do you have any works that you would consider fine linen, clean, and white? I feel sorry for you if you do, because you're deceived concerning your works. The only fine linen that's clean and white is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of the saints. In Jeremiah 23, 6, the Lord is called, this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He's the righteousness of every believer. That's why Noah was seen as righteous before God because he had the righteousness of Christ as his personal righteousness before God.

And then we also read in Jeremiah chapter 33, verse 16, this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. This righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to every believer that makes them perfect. Now I want you to turn, if you have Bibles, to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, remember this is about the divorce or the marriage that has no divorce. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul is quoting Adam from Genesis chapter 2 and he says with regard to marriage. In Ephesians chapter 5 beginning in verse 31, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. That's a quotation from Genesis chapter two.

Now look what Paul says. He says, this is a great mystery. Something we would never have known had not God made it known. This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Marriage is given for this one reason, to picture the relationship between Christ and His Church. Now let me tell you why. There is no divorce in this marriage. First reason is the relationship between Christ and His church is always that of grace. He's never like this man who his wife ceased to find grace in his eyes. The relationship between Christ and His church is always the freeness of His grace.

And here's the second reason. Christ cannot find any blemish in His church because there is no blemish. He made His church altogether perfect, lovely, and holy by His work on Calvary's tree. Now, in verse 25 of this Ephesians chapter 5, we read, Love your wives even as Christ also loved the church. Who did he love? The church, his bride, his chosen, the elect, those the father gave him. He loved the church and gave himself for it. He gave himself up to the wrath of God to put away their sins. He gave himself for the church. for this reason, that he might sanctify, cause it to be holy, and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself.

Listen to these words, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that it should be holy and without blemish. That is what Christ accomplished for his church. Now, the church is the us of Ephesians chapter 1, 4, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, Christ selected his bride. Sovereign election, you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. And this choice took place before time began. And he gave himself in his incarnation, when he became flesh, his life, his death, his resurrection, he gave himself for his church that he might present it to himself a glorious church.

John says in Revelation 21 10, having the glory of God, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. This is what Paul says in Colossians chapter one, verse 22, that the church is to be holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. He sees no fault. He sees no sin in his church.

Now I want to read a few verses from the Song of Solomon. And the Song of Solomon is about the relationship between Christ and his church. Now here's how the church views themselves. The Song of Songs, this is in chapter one, is Solomon's let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For thy love is better than wine. This is the church speaking of her bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is ointment poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me and we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee.

Now here's the church's view of herself. I am black. But comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, I realize as I'm speaking to you as Christ's bride in myself, I am black and sinful, filled with wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. I'm black. But I'm coming. I am beautiful. I have the righteousness of Christ as my personal righteous before God, and that makes me beautiful.

Now, let me read the Lord's words with regard to His church. Behold, chapter four, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks. Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof everyone bears twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet. Thy speech is comely. Thy temples are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks. Thy necks, like the tower of David, builded for an armory, whereon they hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are like two young rose that are twins, which feed among the lilies into the daybreak, and the shadows flee away. I will get thee to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense. Thou art all fair, my love." And this is what the Lord says to His church. There's nothing about you but that which is beautiful. Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." That's what Christ says to his church that he can find no uncleanness to divorce them for. He even says in verse 9, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes. The Lord says, my heart beats faster by looking at one of your eyes.

Now this is the perfect marriage, Christ and his bride. It's grace. Unlike the man who wrote the Bill of Divorcement, it's grace. And unlike the man who wrote the Bill of Divorcement, he can find no uncleanness in his bride because he's made them perfect. Thou art all fair, my love. He says to every one of his people, there is no spot in thee.

Now, The reason this marriage has no divorce is because both the husband and the wife see each other as all together lovely. this is the marriage with no divorce. Thank the Lord for that.

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