Divorce and Remarriage, Part 3a

The great English war her, Field Marshal Montgomery, once said to his troops, Gentlemen, Don't even think about marriage until you have mastered the art of warfare. I read that today and I laughed and then, believe it or not, I almost wanted to cry, real that that is so true If you haven't mastered the art of warfare, your marriage probably is on the rocks tonight or has already failed Because marriage is a warfare, not because of the person you're married to necessarily, but because Satan has an agenda

You know, I find it interesting that Satan didn't come on the scene until Genesis chapter 3 with Adam and Eve Adam was created Satan didn't attack Adam He waited t the woman came on the scene and they were together And then he attacked It helps you understand the warfare before us Why did Satan wait to attack man until after the woman was born? Because you see, God had a plan with man and woman He had a plan that would picture to a world a wonderful, wonderful relationship between the bride of Christ That is the church and the bridegroom himself

Satan knows about that plan, so he seeks to destroy That pl And sadly, he has been a master at destroying marriages and f And I was reading in Genesis chapter 5, and it says this in verses 1 and 2: a very significant contrast Excuse me, it says in chapter 5 of Genesis, this is the book of the generations of Adam In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God He created them male and female, and he blessed them, and named them man in the day when they were creat God had a blueprint God had an original design He made the one man and the one woman

And they were joined together perfectly They were innocent They were without sin Everything was as God wanted it to be There in Genesis chapter 2 The image of God was stamped upon his creation Adam and Eve were made in the likeness of God But if you read verse 2 or verse 3, there's a very striking contrast when it says, When Adam had lived 1 years, he became the father of a son In his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Isn't it interest that Seth was made in the image of Adam? Adam was made in the image and likeness of God

You see what happened between Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapter 2 is Genesis chapter 3 It talks about the depravity of man that's been passed down through the ages through the man that sinned, that man being Adam And thus we have a problem that is insurmountable in our world Conflict has replaced harmony War replaced peace Sorrow replaced joy And all of a sudden, there was disobedience There was rebellion There was murder There was sin and its devastating consequences And if you were to take a survey through the book of Genesis, you would see Satan's ploy to ruin the family through incest

Through adultery, through immorality, through homosexuality It was always one thing after another through the book of Genesis Because if the family is destroyed, then the picture that Christ wants to present to the world is marred and people don't understand Jesus Christ That's Satan's objective, at least one of his objectives The church, the people who claim to be born-again believers, need to understand what the Word of God says concerning divorce and remarriage

So when we come to Matthew chapter 5, we realize that over the years God had always had a plan, and that was to send the Messiah to come and redeem man And so the Messiah comes on the scene and begins to preach about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God He gave his manifesto as the king to let people know what were those. like who were characteristic of his kingdom And he spells it out in Matthew chapter 5 And then he begins to come against the authority of the religious leaders, attacking what they said because they had a tradition We've called it the rabbinical tradition

That was always, or never really quite in line with what the Word of God said, because they would lower the standard of God In order to meet their needs And so they would seek to rewrite the law of God so that they could look good in the eyes of people And so Christ would come and confront that because he knew that there was a divine order He knew that his way was always the right way And so in Matthew chapter 5, verse number 20, or excuse me, verse number 3, he says, And it was said, Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce This was your rabbinical tradition

It was based on two things Number one, they totally disregarded the divine plan of God

We know that because when we read Matthew chapter 19, the question was asked: Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? And Christ would go back to Genesis chapter 2 and say, Have you not heard? Have you not read? Don't you remember what was written from the very beginning of time that God created one man and one woman to be married forever? And not only did they disregard the divine plan, but they totally distorted the Deuteronomy passage, Deuteronomy 24, 1-4, the only passage in the Old Testament that says anything substantial about divorce and remarriage

And they had distorted it to the fact where they had said, Well, didn't Moses command, this is in Matthew 19, did not Moses command that we should divorce our wives? If they were obnoxious, if there was anything indecent in them, did not Moses command that? And if you were with us last week, we saw how they had misinterpreted that passage In reality, Moses did not command To divorce your wives The command was that if you divorced your wife for anything other than adultery and she was to remarry someone else, you could not take her back because she was defiled That was the command

Deuteronomy chapter 24 And so Christ would go on to say in Matthew chapter 19, the Lord God permitted Moses to grant a bill of divorcement because of the hardness of your hearts But that was the rabbinical tradition And from there, we went to talk about the biblical teaching Christ says, You have heard that it was said, but I say to you, this is what the standard is And that's in verse number 32 That everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery

So the biblical teaching began with a confrontation. A confrontation that said, look, this is what the Word of God actually does state You have misinterpreted the Word of God You have misapplied the word of God that somehow you might be able to live the way you want to live But in reality, You have defiled the women that you have divorced because you divorced them for or without a real true Biblical cause And so he confronted their mindset And he confronted them boldly And that confrontation then would lead to a repercussion

And that is this: that if you were to divorce your wife for anything other than the cause of immorality, what you have done is you have caused her to commit adultery when she remarries And she becomes an adulteress, and the individual that she marries becomes an adulterer And so the repercussion is this: if you divorce your wife for anything other than a cause of immorality What you do is create a plethora of people who are adulterers That's the repercussion That's not even to mention the devastating effects of divorce upon families

Girls and boys and relatives and friends and all the conflicts that it raises Christ doesn't even go into that He just talks specifically about the repercussion on how, if you divorce someone, For something other than the cause of pornea, any kind of sexual sin, then you cause them to commit adultery Why? Because adultery is assumed in the scripture If someone divorces, It is assumed that they will remarry, and that they remarry for a cause, or they divorce, excuse me, for a cause other than immorality Then they become an adulterer or an adulteress And that led us to the exception

There was the exception And if you did have your spouse and they were involved in some kind of sexual sin, anything specifically which Leviticus chapter 20, verses 10 to 14, would explain as Sins committed, sexual sins that required the death penalty, bestiality, homosexuality, immorality, any kind of sex sin, whether a person's married or unmarried If your spouse does involve himself in that kind of thing, that would even involve pedophilia, then If you divorce your wife or you divorce your husband for that cause, then if they remarry or if you remarry, then you would not become an adulterer

You would not become Adulteress God is not saying, here are the prescribed guidelines in which you can divorce someone God's not saying that God is saying, That if you divorce someone for anything other than immorality, that would cause them to commit adultery And you would become an adult if you remarried Except On one condition, and that condition is immorality Why? Because from the beginning, Matthew 19:8, it was not so Which leads us to our fourth point, and that is des We want to give you the biblical teaching

Hopefully, all of it, in terms of what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage So, you need to turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 And we want to see the biblical teaching on desertion That is, when an unbeliever desert The belie First Corinthians chapter seven, verse number ten, says this This is the Apostle Paul speaking But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband Cor, used of divorce The wife is not to divorce her husband If you go down and read further down in verse 11, and the husband should not send away his wife

Paul says, look. I'm not saying this The Lord said it The Lord's already made a statement on this And that is this: you are not to divorce your wife or your husband He doesn't even include an exception clause Why? Because the divine plan is for man and woman to be together forever and never to divorce That's why And so Paul says, Look, the Lord has already spoken on this issue This is what he says And then he says, this But if she does leave, verse number 11, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband Interest

Paul says, if she does divorce, again, the word char is used, if she does divorce She is to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband If there's a divorce that happens for anything outside the realm of immorality, something that the Lord has already addressed She is to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband Why? Specifically, because The union that God established was never to be broken And if you divorce for any cause outside of immorality, the union has not been broken You are still in bondage in that marriage

And so Paul says they are not to remarry, whether it's a woman or a man If you divorce Remain single or be reconciled to your spouse We're done with me Paul goes on to say this Verse number 12, but to the rest, I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, let him not send her Away Now, evidently, in Corinth, there were some people who were believers, and they were married to unbelievers, and maybe they became a believer After they'd already been married

And they were thinking: now, wait a minute, I'm a new creation, I'm a new man, I'm a new woman, and I'm living with this unbeliever. I need to get out of this marriage and find someone who loves the Lord and marry that person And Paul says, Now, hold on a second. I'm going to say something The Lord hasn't dealt with this issue Paul's not saying this is not inspiration It's scripture It's inspired by God So Paul's saying the Lord didn't talk about this issue

But I'm going to talk about it with you because you need to understand that if you're a believer, husband or wife, and you are married to an unbeliever Stay with them Stay put Read on with me Verse number 13: And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send her husband away For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband For otherwise, your children are unclean But now, excuse me, they are holy

Paul says, Look, if you are a believer, husband or wife, and you have an unbelieving spouse, there is a sanctifying effect in that home Because God's going to bless your life and God's going to look over your life because you're one of his children They come under the umbrella of that protection And so you don't want to send them away You don't want them to leave You don't want to divorce that individual You want to stay with that unbelieving part

If you were to go to 1 Peter 3, verses 1 to 7, Peter is specifically addressing a woman who's married to an unbelieving Husband and a man in verse number seven who's married to an unbelieving woman And Peter's talking about the meek and quiet spirit And winning that one over to the Lord by your attitude and by your action without even speaking a word, because they see the life of Christ in you Paul has that intent in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 because there is a sanctifying influence in the family because you are there That's why when an unbeliever comes into a church

There is a sanctifying influence that he has by being under the umbrella, being under the protection of the church when he's there And that's why they can come and sometimes they can feel good about being here and like the home effect, the family effects So Paul says: Look, if you're a believer Stay with your unbelieving spouse because there is a sanctifying influence in the home that you give that individual Red with me Verse number fifteen Yet if the unbelieving one Divorces Corriz leaves Let him leave Stop right there

If that unbeliever wants out, if that unbeliever wants to divorce, Paul gives a command: let him do it Let him do it But make sure that you in no way orchestrating the events so the unbeliever does leave and does divorce God knows your heart So God knows what you're doing in the home But if that unbeliever wants to leave because he doesn't like your stand on the truth, he doesn't like your church, he doesn't like what you're doing with the kids, he doesn't like your influence in the home, if he wants out of the marriage, Paul says, here's the command, let Him divorce Let him leave Read on

The brother or the sister Is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace The word bondage is a word used of slavery And Paul is saying, Look, you are no longer in bondage to that marriage as a slave is in bondage to his master Note this in Romans chapter 7, verse number 2, the same word is used about the bond in marriage between a husband and wife, and if the one d The one that's alive is no longer in bondage in that marriage They are set free Follow this with me then? Paul uses the same thing in 1 Corinthians 7 to talk about the bondage in marriage

If the unbeliever divorces the believer and leaves, The belie is free to remarry Why? Because if they weren't free to remarry, they would still be in bondage to that marriage And Paul says, you're no longer under bondage You're set free Now, note this In verse 11, he said: if you divorce your spouse for any cause other than immorality, you can't remarry He makes a stipulation, you cannot remarry Here he doesn't Why? Because remarriage is assumed Listen to what Guy Dut says in his commentary on divorce and rem on 1 Corinthians 7, verse number 15

He says this, why was the command, rem unmarried, specified in the divorce case of verses 10 and 11, but not in the case of verse 15? Why didn't the Lord specify rem unmarried in Matthew 5.3 and Matthew 19? Four times when the Lord dealt with divorce, Matthew 5.3, Matthew 19, 9, 1 Corinthians 7, 10 to 11, and 1 Corinthians 7 He specified, rem unmarried in one case, but not in the other three cases Why such a sharp distinction in one case? Under bondage and not under bondage were legal terms used in the slave trade These terms had long established usage in business and legal matters

When a slave master bought a slave, the slave was under the yoke of continuous service to his owner Paul sent Onisim back to Phile, his owner, because he recognized the slave's bondage to him But when Phile gave Onesim his freedom, as Paul suggested he would do, Onesim would then be free Phile would then have no further claim on him Onesim was as free as the slaves that Lincoln liberated If a slave ran away, his owner could have him arrested and brought back But if the slave had been legally declared not into bondage, his former owner had no claim on him whatsoever

The slave's release was a bond of relinquishing, a contract of renunciation This is exactly what the bill of divorcement did to the marriage in the case of 1 Corinthians 7 verse number. 15 Now, listen, Paul is not saying, look, here are ways you can get out of your marriage So, fix the event so you can get out of it The Bible never does that And people are always looking for ways out of their marriage Look, if you want to get out of your marriage, there's always a way out, right? You can always find a way out of your marriage And try to legalize it biblically

Okay? And so you got to be very careful because there are people who are married to unbelievers Who are looking for a way out of the marriage and hoping and praying that the unbelieving partner leaves? That's not the right attitude And God knows your heart Now, it's important for us to read verse number 16 because it says: For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know, a husband, whether you will save your wife? Listen very carefully What Paul is saying is talking to the Christian who says, Look, if my unbelieving spouse wants to leave, I can't let him go

Why? Because I might win them to the Lord And Paul says, nah, you don't know that Don't get caught up in using your marriage as an evangelistic tool Your marriage was never primarily designed to use as an evangelistic tool It was used to picture Jesus Christ and his love for the church to a lost world Because you don't know whether or not the person who stays in a marriage is going to get saved or not Because the command is: let him divorce Verse number 15, let him leave That's the command Why? Because God has called you to peace That's why That's important to understand

And if God has called you to peace and that unbeliever wants to leave the relationship, let him divorce In that case, you are no longer under bondage You are no longer in bondage to that marriage You have been set free as if that person is dead, because spiritually they are dead And Romans 7:2 says that when the dead person Is gone, you are free to remarry So, in a sense, that person is dead, spiritually speaking, and they are, and therefore, you are free to remarry on those grounds

So, what do we have? We have what the Lord has said in Matthew 5, 31 and 32, Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 16, or Luke 18, excuse me And what Christ has said is that the only grounds biblically for divorce are if your spouse is engaged in ongoing unrepentant Promiscuous lifestyle Not because they've had one affair They blew it one time Ah, you blew it, man. I'm out of here Got grounds Matthew 19 Mark 10, Matthew 5, Say, bow, you blew it That's not the attitude That's the wrong attitude And God says, look

Because of the hardness of man's hearts, his inability to deal with sin, his inability to get things right with me For the innocent party, you can divorce But from the beginning, it was not so Divorce is never, never the best solution It never is Why? Because, Old Testament or New Testament, God still hates divorce And if God hates something, it's never the best option There's a better option And we'll talk about that in a moment.