Let's open our Bibles today to
Mark chapter 10. Those of you who were here Wednesday
night know what a hard time I had trying
to speak with my throat. I trust the Lord will bless and
you pray as we study the word of God together today. Mark chapter 10, and he arose
from thence and cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther
side of Jordan. And the people resort unto him
again, and as he was wont, he taught them again. And the Pharisees
came to him and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away
his wife, tempting him? And he answered and said unto
them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered
to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus
answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart
he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the
creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife. And they twain shall be one flesh.
So then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the
house his disciples ask 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 shall put away
her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch
them. And his disciples rebuked those
that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for if such is the kingdom
of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms,
put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Before we begin
to look at this passage of scripture, I want to remind all of us of
who we are looking at in these verses. That is, this is the
Lord Jesus Christ. We all know that. But he is,
in the word of God, called the servant of the Lord. that is
Jehovah's servant. He is the eternal son of God
who came into this world, was made flesh, became a man, and
he came here to be the servant of the Lord. And in Isaiah chapter
52 and verse 13, this is one of those prophecies concerning
him as a servant. Behold, my servant, this is God
speaking, my servant, shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted
and extolled and be very high. So we are looking in this passage
of scripture this morning at God's chosen servant, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we see him as he dealt prudently. What does the word prudent mean? What does prudence mean? Well,
a good definition is prudence is wisdom applied to practice. Wisdom applied to practice. One of the most amazing verses
in the Bible, really. The last verse in Luke chapter
two, if you look there with me just a moment, which reminds
us that this servant of the Lord Jesus the servant of God, rather,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is Almighty God. The Apostle Paul said the fullness
of the Godhead dealt bodily in Christ. In other words, all that
God is, Christ is. He's God, God Almighty, the Eternal
God, but He's also man. And in this last verse in Luke
chapter 2, and this is the only inspired word that we have concerning
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ after that episode when he was
12 years old in the temple with the doctors, is this word here,
and Jesus increased. Well, let's read verse 51. And
he went down with them, that is Mary and Joseph, and came
to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept
all these sayings in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature and in favor with God and man." In other words,
he increased in stature or age. I believe you see that in your
margin. He was 12 years old, and like you when you were 12,
your next birthday you turned 13, the next birthday 14, and
so on, until he was 30 years of age. And that was the age
that men entered into the priesthood under the law of Moses. And so
then he appears and is baptized by John the Baptist in the River
Jordan. And God testified to him, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And so he began
his public ministry. This is the servant of the Lord
that we are looking at. And as we look at these verses,
the thing I want to impress upon you, as was impressed upon my
heart this past week, we see how He dealt prudently. The scripture there says He increased
in age and in wisdom. That is, as a man, He increased
in wisdom and in knowledge. As God, He is all wise. And yet
as man, he increased in wisdom. And we see him here in this passage
of scripture as the God man who dealt prudently. Wisdom applied. Wisdom applied. There are three
subjects that I want us to look at here. First of all, we see
that the Pharisees would tempt him. Notice that in verse two. And the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife, tempting
him? Now what was their goal? When
these men, these were religious men, they were the most religious
man in Israel. That's the way they were recognized
at that time, the Pharisees. What was their goal? in asking
this question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce
his wife? Do you think that they were asking
for information? Do you think they were asking
to learn? In John chapter 9, we have an
example of their account of Jesus, that is, the Pharisees' account
of Him. They said, we know, this is what
they thought, we know that God spoke unto Moses as for this
fellow? Actually, the only word there
is this. If you look in your Bible in
John chapter nine, the other words here are in italics. They've
been added by the translators. What they said, we know that
God spoke unto Moses as to this, as to this, as to him, We know
not from whence he is. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ
as so much below them, so much beneath them. Here they were,
the great doctors of religion, the great authorities on the
things of God, and they come to the Lord Jesus Christ with
this question. They're not asking for information.
All they're asking for is the Lord to answer, and however he
answered, they would have some way to discredit him, to discredit
him with some one or another. That was their goal. And they
imagined that any way, any way he answers, they're going to
have some to accuse him unto. No matter how he answers this
question, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife if he says
no? Well then, you contradict Moses. You contradict the law of God.
At this time, when the Lord Jesus Christ was here in the flesh,
there were two schools of interpretation of the law among the Jews. And
these two schools were named after two rabbis. One rabbi was
named Shammai, and the other was Hillel. And the Jews at this
time, received the teaching of one of these rabbis or the other
as to this matter of divorce. If it was Shammai, he taught,
his school of teaching was that divorce was only lawful in the
case of uncleanness. In other words, as our Lord said,
for adultery or fornication. That was the only lawful way
of divorce. Now Hillel, the school of Hillel,
Rabbi Hillel, he taught that even in the most trifling matters,
a man had a right to divorce his wife. And you will see some
of the reasons they used. Put too much salt on his food.
Burned his food. Found someone more desirable. But for any reason, any reason,
any trifling reason, Hillel thought a man could divorce his wife.
As you think about this, how many times in the recorded ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ did these religious leaders come
to him with a question, or as this verse says, to tempt him,
to test him in some way? How many times do we read about
that? I think about the time the Sadducees,
now they were not considered quite as fundamental as the Pharisees,
but still they were a very strong group among the Jews. Most of
the high priests were Sadducees, but they didn't believe in a
resurrection. And so we know that one time
they came to him and they thought they had a airtight case. He cannot answer this question.
Here's a woman who had seven husbands. Now whose wife is she
going to be in the resurrection? In other words, there cannot
be any resurrection. That's an impossibility. And
you remember how the Lord answered them. You do err. You do err. In other words, you're
ignorant on these two matters. You do err concerning the scriptures,
that God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead, and
you do err not knowing the power of God. Resurrection to the natural man
seems an impossibility. None of the so-called great philosophers
of the world had ever taught that there would be a bodily
resurrection. Most of the philosophers did
believe in the immortality of the soul, but they never presumed
to teach that there would be a resurrection of the body. But they didn't know the power of
God. It seemed like an impossibility. Our Lord answered them very simply,
didn't he, in the resurrection. Men are not given in marriage,
but shall be like the holy angels. Be like the holy angels. You
and I, if you're here today and a child of God, when you receive
your resurrected body, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to be,
comes again, you'll be like the holy angels. And I think about
this, about the angels. They could eat, but they don't
need it. food to exist. And yes, we read
about the marriage supper of the lamb, that we will sit down
with our Lord in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, but food will not be necessary to the resurrected
body as it is to this physical body in which we live now. We'll
be like unto the angels. And you know, another time they
came to the Lord, And they brought a woman who was taken, they said,
in the very act of adultery. And they set her before the Lord
and said, now the law says, Moses said, she's got to be stoned.
But what do you say? They thought, they thought they
had a case here. And no matter how he answered,
they've got him. They've got him. We can accuse
him either to violate the law of God or violate the civil law
of Caesar, no matter how he answers this question. And our Lord simply
looked down and started writing on the sand. He that is without sin cast the
first stone. And you know, the scripture says
that beginning with the oldest man there, they started disappearing,
being convicted in their conscience. Woman, where are thine accusers? Doth no man accuse thee? No man,
no man. Go in peace and sin no more. What I'm pointing out, hopefully,
to all of us is reminding us, I should say, When the Lord Jesus
Christ later said, for the prince of this world, that is Satan,
cometh and he findeth nothing in me. He couldn't find any sin
in Christ because there is no sin. There was no sin. He knew
no sin. He did no sin. He is a sinless,
holy, harmless son of God manifest in the flesh. Our Lord said,
he comes, but he findeth nothing in me. I say the same thing about
these religious rulers. They came. They came many times
with various cases, but every time we see wisdom in practice. He dealt prudently, the servant
of the Lord. He dealt prudently with every
case. Every attempt they had failed,
and yet Every attempt they had to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ
failed, and yet he asked them one question, one question, and
they had to admit they couldn't answer it. David, King David, calls the Lord. The Lord said
unto my Lord, set thou on my right hand. How does he call
him both his Lord and his son? We can't answer that. They're nonplussed. They never could find anything
with which to accuse him. And yet he asked them one question,
and they couldn't answer it. No man, the scripture says, was
able to answer him a word. Do you know how David called
his Lord his son? How David's son is his Lord? Do you know that? If you're saved,
you do. If you know Christ, you do. Because he's David's Lord, he's
God, but he's David's son. He's a descendant of David after
the flesh. He's God's man. All right, here's
the second thing. The second thing I want us to
think about, the place of scripture with the Lord Jesus Christ. The
place of scripture, here it is, here's the scripture. the place
of scripture with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle James tells
us this about wisdom, that is, the wisdom which is the fruit
of the Holy Spirit. He says it's pure, it's peaceable,
and it's gentle. And we see here, as the Lord
responded to these men, we see that nothing Nothing had a higher
place, greater esteem to the Lord Jesus Christ than the scriptures,
than the word of God, the inspired word. To the law and to the prophets,
if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's
no light in them. They ask him this question, is
it lawful for a man to put away his wife, to divorce his wife? He immediately comes back, what
saith the scripture? You have a question, where do
you go? What saith the scripture? You
have a question about what we believe, what we must believe,
how we must live, about our practice, where do we find the answer?
What saith the scripture? We don't go to church councils,
church creeds, we go to the word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ
in answering their question, what sayeth the scripture? Now,
they had a scripture. They had a scripture. They quoted
Moses. Moses, they said, suffered to
write a bill of divorce, but what they overlooked What they
overlooked was that it was because of sin, because of the hardness
of their hearts, that Moses wrote that permission for a man to
put away his wife. It was actually to correct a
bad situation, a bad situation that was brought about because
men are sinners. Men, we are sinners. And a man would get mad at his
wife and just say, get out of here. You're not my wife anymore. Well, here she's put out the
door. What is she's going to do? She can't marry another man
because she's still married to him. She can't go back home. Where's she going to go? No,
Moses, or God through Moses told him, write a bill of divorcement. That way the woman, when she
leaves her husband, she's free to marry another man. But I'm not going to deal with
that so much as I want us to think of this important matter
here. The place that scripture, the
word of God, had with the Lord Jesus Christ. In answering their
question, We see the esteem that he has for the word of God. It's
his word. God the Holy Spirit inspired
the word, the Bible, the word of God. And look at these two
areas in verse six that he responds to concerning the scripture. But from the beginning of the
creation, God made them male and female. The first thing we
see, creation from the beginning. Creation had a beginning. Only God is eternal. Matter is
not eternal. When God created the heavens
and the earth, he did it out of nothing. He alone existed
and he needed nothing. He didn't need you. He didn't
need me. He's God. We need to get this
thought out of our mind that the God of the Bible somehow
is a needy being. He's not. He's self-sufficient. Needs nothing. No one. In the
beginning of the creation. That's when the creation began
is when God began the creation. God created the heavens and the
earth. You know that verse in Genesis
1 that speaks about God creating the heavens and the earth tells
us that darkness covered the face of the deep. Have you ever
thought about the number of things that God did in darkness? creation, the darkness was upon
the face of the deep. When his son came into this world,
became flesh in the dark womb of the Virgin Mary. When he was
hanging upon the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of God's elect,
darkness covered the earth for three hours. When he walked out
of that tomb, On that following Sunday morning, it was at the
first light in darkness. And that tells me that there
are things about creation, things about the incarnation, God being
made man, about his sacrifice, how his
blood atones for the sins of his people. About His resurrection,
there are things that God has revealed to us in the Word of
God that we are not capable of understanding. We'll never understand
all of these things. People try to dig in, and I'm
thankful for science and all that they do, but my friends,
when they start talking about creation, you're talking about
being above their pay grade. They're really, really above
their pay grade. For there was no one but God.
And the scripture says, through faith we understand that the
worlds were created. It's revealed to us in the Bible,
in the word of God, and by faith we believe it because God said
it. And our believing it doesn't
settle it. No, it was settled because God said it. And in the beginning, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, God made them male and female. God made Adam's
body from the dust and then he breathed into Adam's body the
breath into his nostrils, rather the breath of life. And this
shows that man is both material and immaterial, both mortal and
immortal. God made man. He's not the product
of evolution. And God made them male and female. I listened a couple of weeks
ago to someone interviewing some people out in Berkeley, California. And I'm not sure if they were
students there at the university or not, but the question was,
how many genders are there? One woman said, infinite. Infinite. Another said, 72. Just like, you know, he just
had it all down. 72. Someone else they played
said, seven. But don't ask me to name them
all. Isn't it amazing that people
that would answer like that are now teaching in the universities? When it hasn't been that long,
they would be consigned to an asylum for those who are mentally
demented. There are two genders, male,
female. God made them male and female. You say, how have we come to
this place in our country where things like that, as foolish
as that stuff is, how have we come to that? I'm going to tell
you how we've come to it. It's because probably over 100
years ago now, the churches in our country began to whittle
the Word of God down. They got rid of the first seven
chapters of Genesis, first of all. And then they've just picked
and chose what they wanted to believe. And for the most part,
they've got a Bible that's not worth the paper it's printed
on. God never gave us his word for
us to set in judgment. Rationalism, if it's not rational,
in other words, if my mind cannot comprehend this and it can't
be true. What man has done is exalted
man and brought God down below man, just like the scripture
in Romans chapter one says. Well, the next thing, marriage,
creation, get that from the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth and God created man, male and female. Now marriage for
this cause, you see that for this cause in verse seven, and
we find the same thing, I believe in Genesis chapter two for this
cause, what cause? Because man, man without woman
is not complete. Men alone cannot reproduce. That's so obvious, isn't it?
Man alone was not complete. God saw it was not good that
the man should be alone. Man needs a helpmate. And the same thing is true about
the woman. She needs a helpmate. And if
you notice the words here of our Lord, For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother. When we come into this world,
into the home of our parents, our father and our mother, that's
the closest tie that we have. That's a very wonderful tie,
very important tie, isn't it? That parents love their children
and take care of their children and educate their children and
bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. That's very important. But then there comes a day when
there's going to be a more important relationship. A man's going to
leave his father and his mother and he's going to cleave, cleave
to his wife. In other words, he's going to
be joined to her so that they no longer or twain, two. They're now one. They're now
one. Did you know that the Lord chose
the marriage relationship? He honored the marriage relationship.
Society breaks down when the home breaks down. And marriage,
it's a very, important thing. I heard a man just this past
week say, who you marry, that decision is much more important
than what profession you choose, what college you go to, or anything
like that, because those things can all be changed and rearranged,
but know this is something that's going to stay with you all of
your life in this world. God chose the marriage relationship
and honored it as being the highest earthly type of the grandest
heavenly fact. That heavenly fact is that there's
a union between Christ, a mystical union between Christ and everyone
who is a believer in him. Every member of his body, we
are one with Christ. And that's the picture that marriage
pictures, or that's the thing that marriage pictures to us.
And God said, I hate putting away. That is divorce is something
that he looks against because of no other reason. It destroys
this beautiful, wonderful type. of the union between Christ and
his bride, the church. They're now one flesh. Now Matthew
at this point, the gospel of Matthew at this point tells us
that when the disciples went into the house and asked the
Lord about this and And Mark tells us that they ask him about
this, but Matthew says his disciples said, wait a minute. If the case of the man be so
with his wife, it's good not to marry him. Now those were his disciples.
They said that. If that's the case, a man with
his wife become one, then It's better never to marry. And the
Lord Jesus Christ responded with that, all cannot receive this
saying, save they to whom it is given. The natural thing has
God created man. And remember, God gave Eve to
Adam as his wife before they sinned. Marriage is good, my
friend. Don't ever listen to any religion
that teaches there's something sinful about marriage, or there's
something more holy or more sanctified if you don't marry. You know,
the Apostle Paul said, the marriage bed is undefiled in all. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
7, the Apostle Paul answers some questions that believers had
about marriage. and about divorce. And I want
to give you three of them hurriedly. And they're all found in 1 Corinthians
7. You can read that chapter later
if you'd like. He said, nevertheless, to avoid
fornication, let every man have his own wife. In other words, marriage is not only legitimate
and right, It's most necessary for most people. Man needs a
wife, and a woman needs a husband. You say, well, I don't. And I
certainly, I've heard some women say this, well, I'll tell you
one thing, I'll never be in submission to any man. Don't marry. Don't marry, if that's your thought. Because the Lord is very clear. The word of God is very clear.
The husband is ahead of the wife. That doesn't mean he's some kind
of despot that rules and reigns and stomps upon his wife. No,
he is commanded to love her as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. But this is still God's order.
The man is ahead of the woman. And Christ is the head of the
man, and God is the head of Christ. And that's what the scripture
says. I believe it. And so Paul said, to avoid fornication,
let every man have his own wife, not somebody else's wife, his
own wife. And then he said later, if they
cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than
to burn. You say, what does that mean?
Burn, to burn with desire. The sex drive is a very strong
drive, isn't it? You know that. It's a very strong
drive. And God created us as he did
with this attraction and this desire. Now, as long as it's
within the confines of marriage, it's good, it's holy. Outside
of marriage, it's sin, fornication, adultery. But Paul said it's
better to marry than to burn. That is to have that lust, burn
with that lust in your heart. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ
said when he said that to lust after a woman in your heart,
you've already committed adultery with her. It's not just the physical
act, in other words. It's that desire. desire that
is in the heart. Paul said it's better to marry
than to burn. And then one other statement,
he said, he said, for if her husband be dead, she is at liberty
to be married to whom she will only in the Lord. Every child of God, if Christ
is your Lord, you do not want to marry an unbeliever. You're just asking for problems
and you'll get them. Now the last thing in closing,
the Lord Jesus took these children up in his arms and blessed them. Reminds me of that prophecy in
Isaiah, which said he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He
shall gather the lambs with his arms. carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd who gave
his life for his sheep. He's the good shepherd who knows
his sheep. He's the good shepherd who finds
his sheep. Someone said, I found the Lord.
He wasn't lost. He wasn't lost. I told that to someone a few
months ago. I said, I'm so thankful the Lord
found me. And this person said, he didn't
find you, you found him. I said, no, no, he found me. Oh, no, you found him. I said,
no, no, he wasn't lost. And this person said, oh, I see
what you mean. He wasn't lost. I was the one
who was lost. And the good shepherd, he goes
out. He's got 90 and 9. Are they not
enough for thee? Oh, no. Oh, no. There's one of my sheep out there
lost somewhere. And he goes and he searches until
he finds that lost sheep. And I love this. He puts it on
his shoulder. Amen? He puts it on his shoulder. He doesn't just tell us, follow
me, make it home the best you can. He puts it on his shoulder
and carries it all the way home. Amen. Amen. I pray the Lord will
bless these words to all of us here this morning. We're going
to sing a hymn we haven't sung in a Sometime I don't believe
ring the bells of heaven. There's joy today. Yeah