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 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Neibert. In Mark chapter 10, verse 2,
the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus Christ with this question. The Pharisees came to him and
asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? Is it lawful for a man to divorce
his wife? Tempting him. Now they had no
good motive in asking him this question. They were trying once
again to trip him up in his words. But here was their question,
is divorce lawful? I've entitled this message, Divorce. Divorce. Now this is a subject
that I dare say everybody listening has been affected by in one way
or the other. Perhaps you've been divorced
or you've been a part of a family where there has been divorce
and you have been affected by it. In our day, half of marriages
end in divorce. Now God said, here's a God's
testimony with regard to this. God said in Malachi chapter two,
verse 16, that he hates putting away. He hates divorce. That's what God thinks of divorce. God hates divorce. And I am so thankful. Here's
why. The church and every individual
believer is described as the bride of Christ. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. The relationship between Jesus
Christ and his people is described as a marriage. We read of the
marriage supper of the Lamb. God's people are the bride of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if anyone ever had a reason
to divorce their wife, it would be the Lord Jesus and his bride. Somebody says, why are you saying
that? Well, I'm just speaking from my own experience. I am
constantly unfaithful. I'm constantly committing adultery. Now, I'm not talking about physical
adultery. I've never committed physical
adultery. What this is speaking of is looking
somewhere other than Christ for my comfort, for my rest, for
my assurance. That's called spiritual adultery.
I've constantly sinned against Him. Oh, I've been such an unfaithful
bride, but thank God he doesn't believe in divorce. He hates
divorce, and he says to his bride, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. Now that is the Lord's attitude
about divorce. He will not divorce his bride. You see, he's made a way because
he's God. He's made a way for His bride
to be beautiful and without fault and without sin before Him. And
even though I know in and of myself, I'm nothing but sin. And I'm not saying that as earnestly
as I should. That's true of every man. God's people are the only ones
that know it, though. And they know something about their own
sinfulness. If anyone ever had a reason to
throw his bride out, it would be the Lord Jesus Christ, but
he doesn't do it. He hates divorce. Now, I dare say that the great
majority of people who have been divorced would also say, I hate
divorce. I have read that of the most
stressful events that anybody ever experiences. The two greatest
are the decease of a loved one and divorce. And many people
would say that divorce is more difficult than the decease of
a loved one because you really get no closure on it. And indeed
it is a terrible thing. The stress of it. Somebody has
even said divorce is never a solution. It's only an exchange of problems.
God said, I hate divorce. And just on a human level, think
of all the problems divorce creates for the children. Oh, they're
never unscathed from this. They're always affected by this.
There's so many people that are affected by divorce. Quite often
it begins with an I'm not happy and watch out what's going to
happen after that. Now, God said, I hate divorce. In a marriage, a vow or commitment
is made for life, and divorce is the breaking of that vow. Now please listen to me carefully.
I realize there are situations where divorce is unavoidable. Now let me repeat that. I realize
that there are situations where divorce is unavoidable, but that
is not usually the case. Honor your vows. And if you are
divorced, what a painful thing you've gone through. And may
the Lord give you the grace to move on. It's over. Move on. And if you're not divorced,
do not be judgmental of those people who are divorced. You
don't know the facts. You don't know what they've gone
through. And as far as that goes, we are
forbidden to judge anyway. We don't have any business judging
anybody about anything. The Lord said, judge not. Paul
said, let us not judge one another anymore. But let's look at this
passage of scripture where these Pharisees asked the Lord this
question. And the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting
him? Now they didn't have a real good
reason for asking this question. They were looking for something
in the Lord's answer. that they could trip him up in
his words and accuse him, which is, how do you trip up omniscience? It can't be done. The Lord is
impossible to trip up, but they tried it anyway. As a matter
of fact, there are five different times in the scriptures where
it said they tempted him. After he was preaching, they
tempted him, asking for a sign. And by that, they were saying,
what you're saying, we can't really believe. You're going
to have to give us a sign of your divinity to prove it. And
then we have them asking him about paying taxes to the Roman
government, tempting him, trying to cross him up. And then they
said, what is the greatest commandment? Tempting him. It was not because
they really had any desire to know what the greatest commandment
was. They wanted to entrap him in his words. You remember when
the woman was taken in adultery and they bring her to the Lord
and say, now Moses commanded in the law that such should be
stoned, but what sayest thou? They thought they had the Lord
in an impossible situation. If he says stoner, we can say,
thought you were merciful. And if he says, let her go, we
can say, where's your respect to God's holy law? And I love
the way the Lord answered them, he that's without sin among you,
let him cast the first stone at her. And then he said to that
woman, hath no man condemned thee, neither do I. But what
they were doing, they were trying to attract the Lord. And here's
the same thing. They were trying to see what
the Lord would say about divorce, and it was rampant in that day.
There are records where men would divorce their wives for burning
their dinner. I mean, it was a rampant at that time, but they're
asking the Lord about this. And the Lord answers, verse three,
and he answered and said unto them, what did Moses command
you? What's in the law? Well, they had this memorized,
Deuteronomy 24, verse one. They said Moses suffered to write
a bill of divorcement and to put her away. That's what Moses
said. And Moses did say that. You can find it in Deuteronomy
chapter 24, verse one. As a matter of fact, read verses
one through four on that if you want to see what Moses said.
Now look at the Lord's answer in verse five. And Jesus answered
and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this
precept. Now this law, this Bill of Divorcement,
was an accommodation for human sinfulness and hardness of heart. If divorce is forbidden and two
men and women are made to live together that hate one another,
They might have began loving one another, but now maybe they
hate one another. There might be such misery. What if you have
a man beating a woman? Well, she can't leave him. She
can't divorce. Who would tell a woman to stay
in such a situation as that if her husband was physically abusive
to her? I would never tell a woman to
stay in a situation like that. There could be such sorrow and
danger, maybe murder. So divorce is the only option. But the Lord said, for the hardness
of your heart, Moses gave you this because he knew the things
that would take place if there were no divorce. But look what
the Lord says next in verse six, but from the beginning of the
creation, God made them male and female. Now he goes back
to The garden. If you want to know what God
thinks of marriage, you remember how he said with regard to Adam,
it's not good for man to dwell alone. I'll make a help meet
for him. And he made Eve. Eve was taken
out of his side, which is a beautiful picture of the gospel. Adam was
put to sleep. Christ died. The church, Eve
came out of Adam's side, the church came out of the pure side
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one man said this, Eve came from
his side, not from his head to rule over him, not from his feet
for him to trample on, but from his side to walk with him as
his equal, from underneath his heart to love her. under his
arm to protect and cherish her. What a beautiful picture marriage
is of the relationship between Christ and his church. And look
what the Lord says next, but from the beginning of the creation
God made them male and female For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the twain shall
be one flesh. So that there are no more twain,
but one flesh. Now this act of intimacy, the
two becoming one flesh, is given to teach us of the union that
exists between Christ and his church, between Christ and his
bride. Hebrews 2.11 says, both he that
sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one. John 4.17 says, as he is, so
are we in the world. And the reason that is true is
because we're united to him. If we're believers, we're one
with him. That's what baptism depicts.
When a man is baptized, he's saying, here's my only hope of
salvation. When Christ lived, I lived. When Christ died, I
died. When Christ was raised from the
dead, I was raised from the dead. I'm united to him. He is my salvation. I am one with him. All that he
is perfect to God, righteous, holy, accepted by the father. I am because I am united to him. Now, This union exists between
Christ and his people. They're one. That's what marriage
is. The two become one flesh. Wherefore, verse 9, what therefore
God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Now, that's strong language. Somebody says, well, aren't there
reasons for divorce? Well, the Lord says in the case
of adultery or fornication, yes, but it's better to forgive, isn't
it? It's better to forgive. It's always better to forgive.
As a matter of fact, the foundation of a good marriage is forgiveness. And remember, the first part
of marriage is not the act of intimacy, but the vow of a lifelong
commitment. And the act of intimacy is a
consummation of that act. Now, what God hath joined together.
Let no man put asunder. This is a relationship that cannot
be dissolved. What God doeth, it shall be forever. There's no divorce between Christ
and his bride. Now in verse 10, and his disciples
asked him again of the same matter, and he saith unto them, whosoever
shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. And if a woman should put away
her husband and be married to another, she commit adultery."
Somebody says, what's that mean? Exactly what it says. Now, are
you saying that if I've divorced my wife and I'm married again,
I'm in the act of committing adultery? What's the Lord say? Now, That doesn't mean you ought
to leave your wife and go back to your first wife. Doesn't mean
that at all. You see, if you're a believer, all your sins are
forgiven sins. And this is not saying that you
should leave your current spouse and go back to your first spouse.
That's not what it's saying at all. And as far as that goes,
1 Corinthians 7, Verse 15 says, if the unbelieving depart, let
them depart. A brother's sister is not under
bondage in such cases. And there are cases where divorce
has been unavoidable and you're not under bondage. You're free
to marry another is what that means without being in some kind
of sinful relationship, abandonment. physical abuse. I mean, you could
see there's many such cases and and I don't understand all that.
I don't know what somebody's going through. I'm thankful I
haven't been divorced and I know that I would be apart from God
preventing it. And so don't be hard on what
people have experienced. Move on. But at any rate, this
is what the Lord says. Now, Ephesians 5 verse 25 says,
husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of the 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 blame before him. Now
let me tell you something that is excluded in Christ's love
for his church. Divorce. The Lord will never
divorce his bride. Now this description of the church
to Christ reminds me of the Song of Solomon. When Solomon says
to the Shulamite, the relationship between Christ and his church,
thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. I am ravished by thee. That's what the Lord says to
his church. I am ravished by thee. Now I would like to close
by looking at a couple of scriptures with regard to marriage. The
first is found in Romans chapter seven, beginning in verse one. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth." God's holy law. Somebody says,
I'm not going to submit to that. It still has dominion over you.
Whether you like it or not, that's the way it is. God is God. And
the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. Now he says
in verse two, for the woman which hath a husband is bound by the
law to her husband so long as he liveth. You can't just up
and say, I'm getting out of this. I'm tired of it. No, you're bound.
By the law, you're bound to your husband as long as he lives. But if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she should be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free
from that law so that she is no adulteress, though she be
married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you are
become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now, every man and
woman is married to the law by nature. And you can't get out
from under that. And you know, the law is not
a very good husband. All the law does is expose sin. All the law does is find fault. Now, if you had, you women, if
you had a husband who all he did was criticize you and condemn
you for everything you did, it wouldn't create love. You know,
the law never produces love, only resentment. Now, As long
as he's alive, even though he's such a bad husband and critical
of you, you have to stay married to him. But if he be dead, and
that's what Christ Jesus did when he died, the law was satisfied. and you're no longer under law. You've got a new husband. You're
married to him who sees you as nothing but beautiful and perfect
in himself. Now, what a husband he is, who
finds no faults, who says, you're altogether lovely to me. That is the new marriage that
the believer has with Christ. Now, I want to look at a passage
of scripture in the book of Hosea. Hosea chapter one, we read verse
two, the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the
Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and
children of whoredoms. Go marry a prostitute that has
had children through those relationships. Would God really say to do that?
Yes, He did. He told Hosea to marry a woman
of whoredoms. Four, the land have committed
great whoredom departing from the Lord. Now this is given to
picture the relationship between the Lord and his church. He tells
Hosea, you go marry a prostitute because that is what my people
have done toward me. They've committed great whoredoms. Now, I know on so many levels
that this describes me. I am the woman of whoredoms. I've been so unfaithful to my
Lord, so sinful, so self-righteous, which is such an oxymoron that
a sinner can consider themselves righteous, so proud, you name
it. You name it. And every one of
God's people knows that's the way they are. They're such an
unfaithful bride. prone, like the song where I
said, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the
God I love. That describes every believer. Now we read in chapter two, Hosea
is speaking to the children of Gomer, plead with your mother,
plead for she's not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let
her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries
from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and set her
in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness,
and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And
I'll not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children
of whoredoms. For their mother hath played
the harlot she hath conceived, she hath done shamefully. And
she said, I'll go after my lovers that give me my bread, and my
water, and my wool, and my flax, and my oil, and my wine. Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way. This is Hosea speaking of Gomer,
who said she's going to do all these things. And this is what
the Lord does for the church. Behold, I'll hedge up thy way
with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her pass.
She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them.
And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall
she say, I will go and return to my husband. For then it was
better with me than now." That's the way the believer returns
to Christ. For she didn't know that I gave
her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and
gold, which they had prepared for Baal. She thought her lovers
had given her these things, but I was the one who was taking
care of her. Therefore will I return and take away my corn, and the
time thereof, and my wine, and the season thereof, and will
recover my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness.
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
none shall deliver out of my hand. I will also cause all her
mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and her solemn feasts, and I will destroy her vines and her fig
trees, whereof she has said, these are my rewards that my
lovers have given me, and I'll make them a forest, and the beasts
of the field shall eat them, and I'll visit her in the days
of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked
herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after
her lovers, and forget me, saith the Lord. This is the Lord talking
about his bride, Therefore, behold, I will allure her. and bring
her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. I'm going
to give her the comforts of the gospel. And I will give her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. And
she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the
days when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it should
be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt not call me Ishi,
Lord, Master, but thou shalt call me Bailey, husband." What
a beautiful, beautiful type. Now what about divorce? Christ
says, I hate it. I hate it. I hate putting away
So many people, no doubt everybody listening to one degree or another,
has experienced this awful thing of divorce, but understand this,
Christ will not divorce His bride. He says in verse 19, I will betroth
thee unto me forever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
and in judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercies, I will even betroth
thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord.
I will cause you to be faithful. What a love Hosea had for Gomer,
and what a love Christ has for his church. He says, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Christ does not believe in divorce. And if you're contemplating divorce,
if it can be avoided, avoid it. If it can be, avoid it. And understand this, Christ never
divorces His people. but he remains faithful to them
all the way to the end. And as I said, if there's ever
been somebody who had a reason to divorce, it would be the Lord
Jesus Christ. But he says, I hate divorce. And we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our services begin this
morning at 1030, this evening at six and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. And we'd love
to have you come out and hear the gospel. This is Todd Nyberg.
praying that God will be pleased to make himself known to you.
That's our prayer. Amen. To receive a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.neiber at gmail.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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