Matthew 5:31-32

Speaker 1: Take your Bibles if you have them and turn to the book of Matthew Matthew. Chapter number five is where we're going to be this morning. And I sure do appreciate those of you who made different comments about the message last week. A little bit of a sensitive topic to address. But if I could just

Speaker 3: be a little transparent with you? It's almost easier to deal with last week's topic than it is this week's topic. And if you've already read

Speaker 1: ahead in Matthew Chapter five, we're going to be in versus thirty one and thirty two.

Speaker 3: You know, Jesus is teaching his

Speaker 1: the listeners the

Speaker 3: would be disciples about what it means to be a true disciple. And you know, he says, you know, you've heard it said of by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, you know, and adultery

Speaker 1: is kind of like the man with a sickness

Speaker 3: that's very apparent. Everybody can see it. Jesus goes on, and he deals with the issues of lust, the eyes, lust of the heart. Those are maladies that are much easier to conceal. Right? And so even as I'm preaching on that, you know, it's pretty easy for you to hide it if that's something you faced in your life. But this

Speaker 1: morning, when we talk about the topic that we're going to look at this

Speaker 3: today, it's not it's not as easy to conceal this one.

Speaker 1: And and

Speaker 3: you know, some of you have gone through this personally, and I would say the rest of us have gone

Speaker 1: through something

Speaker 3: third hand or we know of someone who's faced this issue. And so this is a

Speaker 1: topic that affects all of us, and I'm not trying to single anybody out because of what has happened in their past. I want to be a help to

Speaker 3: all of us

Speaker 1: in this matter. Jesus is going to deal with the issue of divorce me. Before we read our passage, I want to make a few other comments. First, it is good to have Miss Livonia here with us today and as long has been recovering from gallbladder surgery. And so we're very excited to have her back in service with us

Speaker 3: and glad to see you here. I also want to let you know that in case you didn't know, some of you already did, but this week, this Friday is going to be really Kinney and

Speaker 1: miss Bessie Bacon's seventy six wedding anniversary. And so,

Speaker 3: yeah, yeah, they're not here, but. And so you just

Speaker 1: don't realize how much it means to them when they receive a card. One of our ladies sent Miss Betsy a card and I can tell you it made her whole week to receive that card. So if you

Speaker 3: get if you think about it,

Speaker 1: send them a card congratulating them. We'll be sending flowers from the church to commemorate that special occasion.

Speaker 3: And pray for really Kenny. Pray that he stays healthy because if he stays

Speaker 1: healthy this week is going to get to go home on Friday, spend all day Friday and Saturday with his wife. And so we just really, really want that to take place. So please be in prayer for them. And I know you'll do that. Also, please pray for Miss Mary Brower and her family brother Matt went visited Miss Mary yesterday. The nurse just said that her times of responsiveness are becoming less and less frequent. She's been offered dialysis now for over a week, so please pray for her as it seems her home going will be soon. Pray for her children and would appreciate

Speaker 3: that as well. All right, Matthew.

Speaker 1: Five, Verse 31 If you're there, go ahead and join me in standing in honor of reading God's word, we're all going to read two verses here this morning.

Speaker 3: But they very much go with

Speaker 1: and connect to versus we

Speaker 3: read last week. Jesus says it. It has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce. But I say to you that whosoever shall put away his wife.

Speaker 1: Saving for the cause of fornication

Speaker 3: causes her to commit adultery. Whosoever shall marry her? That is divorce. Committed adultery? Let's pray. Heavenly Father. I pray that you'd

Speaker 1: help us this morning as we look at this sensitive subject. Lord, I pray that you would protect us from offense. Or do you help me the only say what you have said in your word

Speaker 3: and that we would leave

Speaker 1: here with a greater understanding and application that we can apply to our

Speaker 3: lives, things that we can use to help others who have faced this this issue in their own life as well. Lord, we love you so much

Speaker 1: and thank you for your grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus name. I pray.

Speaker 3: Amen. Thank you. May be seated. OK, so I don't mean and I don't think Jesus meant for this, this sermon to be like one downer after

Speaker 1: another, downer after another downer where you're

Speaker 3: just like, Woe is me, what

Speaker 1: is even the point of

Speaker 3: trying to just I give up. I'll never I'll never be good enough. Is not intending for you to be discouraged by that is intending for you to be encouraged because the fact of the matter is, you're right, you will never be good enough. That's why we need Jesus. The whole point of this passage is to, well, to make us into true disciples. But if you give me a true disciple, then you need poverty of spirit. You have to let go of your own self sufficiency and you have to turn to Jesus Christ. If we're going to see our lives transformed so that we resemble what Jesus is saying, it looks like the life of a true disciple.

Speaker 1: It's going to only come by the work of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ in our lives,

Speaker 3: you know, becoming a Christian is something that happens in a moment. It is a decision that happens in a moment. I always struggle with people who say, Well, I, I gradually eased into Christianity. Like, Yeah, but when did you get saved? When did you give Jesus your sins for forgiveness? When when was that moment? Well, I don't know. I've just always been saved. I got a real issue with that one. I believe that the Bible shows us example after example, after example of a of men and women who got saved in

Speaker 1: a moment when they asked Jesus Christ, forgive them of their sins.

Speaker 3: But the process of becoming a true disciple is not something that happens in a moment. I mean, how many of you you know, you heard stories about people who were addicted to all these different vices. They had all these different sins and they got saved and they they they got up and they walked away and they never, never had a problem with it again. The rare I know about you, but I guess some of the same same sins I've been dealing with for a while, becoming a true disciple is a process that takes place over time. Hopefully over the last few weeks, the Holy Spirit is pointing out in your life the anger, the forgiveness, the lust that that you perhaps have been harboring, maybe without even fully realizing what it is that you're doing. Perhaps you've been faced with your sin and you are unsure of how you will ever get beyond these things. Remember, it is a process. It is moments like this where we come together as a church family. We open God's word and we say to God, we say to the Holy Spirit, Show me where I need to change. Show me where I need to grow. And God takes his finger and he points to a spot in our life. And he says, Right here, son, right here, my daughter. Then you have a decision to make you open yourself up to God changing that area. Or will you say no, thank you, Lord, I wanted you to change me, but not that Lord. I want you to show me where I was wrong, but not there. The process of becoming a true bill may have 10 steps. They have a hundred steps. First step is always to agree with God about what he calls Sin is sin in our life, and you agree with God that a process needs to take place. And then you begin to let him work through the process in your life of taking his word and applying it to your life and taking this holy spirit and growing you in your life. Whether that be, you know, you have to learn how to forgive, whether that be a need for reconciliation or whether that be a need for purity. Jesus will perform the

Speaker 1: work that only he can

Speaker 3: do if we will let too often,

Speaker 1: though, we just don't want to let him.

Speaker 3: Today, we're going to talk about a

Speaker 1: topic that has affected probably every family in this room

Speaker 3: when everyone to understand where we stand as a church regarding the issue of divorce. And I think

Speaker 1: after we're done with the message here this morning,

Speaker 3: you'll have a greater understanding of why we have taken that stand. We believe that it is never God's will for a marriage to end in divorce. I know that that might sound hard to swallow on the face of it. Let me explain. Well, I was gonna say when a man and a woman, usually we haven't switched up your the platform when a man and a woman stand here in this church or in some venue. But they stand before God and they make their vows to each other in the presence of witnesses and to the Lord, they're going to stay married for a lifetime. We believe that is

Speaker 1: God's will, that they would stay married for a

Speaker 3: lifetime. There is never a there's never a husband

Speaker 1: and wife that come together that God says, You know what? I really hope this ends in divorce.

Speaker 3: It would past there's so many, you know, extenuating circumstances. What about adultery? What about abuse? What about abandonment? Is God not allow for for those marriages in now? Hold on. You're conflating the issue. I said when a husband and wife stand before God and they make their vows to one another and to the Lord, it is not God's will that that marriage would end in divorce. So as a church, we want to do everything we can to work with God in preserving marriage. You can you can follow history and find that the lower a society's view of marriage goes, the worse it is for that society. The Greeks, the Romans, Egyptians, as marriage became less and less important as faithfulness to marriage was eroded and eroded in a way that society slipped. We will do everything we can to prevent divorce. However, we are aware. The fact that when a husband and wife stand there before witnesses, before God, they make their vows. That is two simple people. Those are those that is those are those are two sinful people. That are guaranteed to fail. And fulfilling their roles. I don't know about you, but. I have failed in my role as a husband. I have treated

Speaker 1: my wife poorly. I have failed her over and over again. I don't want to out my wife. I know you all think she's perfect, but guess what?

Speaker 3: She has failed me as a wife from time to time. Very often she has those two people are bound to fail in upholding their roles and responsibilities. Can we all assent to the

Speaker 1: fact that divorce

Speaker 3: is a very real reality

Speaker 1: in so many people's lives?

Speaker 3: I don't want you to raise your hand, but I'm

Speaker 1: guessing that if we were to raise our hands and say my family has been touched by divorce, there

Speaker 3: probably wouldn't be

Speaker 1: very many hands.

Speaker 3: It didn't go up. It's a it's a reality. So what are we supposed to do as a church? We say we don't believe that is God's will when a marriage is formed that it would end in divorce. What are we to do when a marriage does end in divorce? Do we shun them? Do we get the ladies to,

Speaker 1: you know, at retreads to make us some big Scarlet A's or D's to, you

Speaker 3: know, emblazoned upon people's clothing so that when they come to church, we can easily identify you? Oh, how did Jesus respond to your sin? Your failings? How? Forgiveness, Grace, Mercy. God's grace is sufficient for anything, and so no matter what your background, no matter what your future, I would hope that here

Speaker 1: at the Baptist Tabernacle, you would always find a place

Speaker 3: that loves you, that you'll find God's grace here, God's mercy. Maybe you are the offending party. Maybe your marriage ends because of something you have done, and then it's very obvious you're guilty. You come here.

Speaker 1: So I need forgiveness.

Speaker 3: I need restoration. I hope you

Speaker 1: find it here

Speaker 3: at this church. Maybe you, through no fault of your own, will have your marriage in. This happens quite often. One party decides I'm done with you. I'm leaving. There's nothing you can do about it. I would hope that you'd be able to come here to the Baptist Tabernacle and find help

Speaker 1: and support and strength from your church family.

Speaker 3: Divorce is a is a hard issue to deal with. Our goal is to love and minister to all those who have been touched by divorce.

Speaker 1: Our passage this morning Jesus addresses the topic of divorce. Now I want you to understand the direction that he's coming from.

Speaker 3: Remember, he said back in verse number twenty seven, you have heard it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Now, if you go down to verse number thirty two, what is the last word in verse summer? Thirty two adultery. We've got bookings here, OK? Adultery two. Adultery Jesus is dealing with a specific issue related to divorce. This is not a comprehensive doctrinal, systematic teaching on divorce. It is a unique issue pertaining to divorce. And it's specifically addressing a teaching that have been taking place in Jesus time regarding when a divorce could take place. How a divorce was to be transacted. And Jesus wants to address this specific issue. And so I want us to understand that this is a focused to Jesus is presenting to us. And there's three ways

Speaker 1: that I want us to look at this.

Speaker 3: I want us to look at what did the law teach about divorce? What were the Pharisees teaching about divorce? And then what is Jesus? Tell us about divorce? OK, so those are the three views that we're going to take this morning. So first, what did the law

Speaker 1: teach about divorce? And in order for us to fully grasp this, I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy 20 for

Speaker 3: Deuteronomy twenty four. Who wrote the law? Moses, God, I mean, who's the author, the law God, that God wrote it right? He used Moses, but it came from God and Jesus is. God, so can Jesus contradict the law? No, it would be impossible. Is Jesus going to like, correct the law as if he made a mistake the first time? But we're going to get it right this time. No, he's not going to do that. OK. Remember, we talked to a whole bunch. Jesus didn't come to destroy the law. He came to fulfill it. So Deuteronomy 24 verse number one, says when a man has taken a wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he has found someone cleanness in her, then let him write her a divorce meant give it in her hand and her out of his house. When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another one. If the latter husband hate her and write Smith, give it. And Senator, 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

Speaker 1: take her again to be his wife. After that, she is defiled for that is abomination. Before the Lord, thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy god give it for an inheritance.

Speaker 3: All right. So there's a lot

Speaker 1: going on here. Let's try to unpack it in a way that is simple for us to understand. The first feature of the law regarding divorce is

Speaker 3: this It is possible for a husband to find some

Speaker 1: unclean this in his wife. It says that she finds no favor in his eyes,

Speaker 3: and if it ended right there, we would be in trouble. Right. Because that's pretty open ended. But God didn't leave it open ended. He put a very specific attribute that had to be found in that it had to be on account of unkindness. Now you have to understand the world in which that this was given, where a man could verbally divorce his wife, for whatever reason, send her on

Speaker 1: her way and be absolutely done with her. Some of you were going to read this. You're going to say, I don't like this, I don't like that. It says the man gives his wife a bill of divorce. What about the ladies?

Speaker 3: What about the wife?

Speaker 1: What recourse does she have? But you have to understand that what Jesus, what God is doing here is he is protecting

Speaker 3: the women of Israel. Is because if all the man has to do is verbally divorce his wife, what protection does she have? I mean, he can send her out for whatever reason he may feel is is valid in his own mind, but God says, No, you can't. You cannot do that. You have to

Speaker 1: have a valid reason for it. The marriage

Speaker 3: has to have a written bill of

Speaker 1: divorce that is given now. You want to notice with me that it says for some, unclean this.

Speaker 3: Do you know what the unclean this could not be in this case, it could not be adultery. You would not divorce your wife for adultery. Because she'd be dead. In this day,

Speaker 1: adultery was met with the punishment of what? Death by stoning. You don't have to get divorced in. Because it's over. She committed adultery and now she's dead. And so the ugliness that is mentioned here is not adultery. It has to be in relation to the law that God has given his people. Maybe she's a liar. Maybe she's a thief. Maybe she likes to kill other people's boxes. It seems to be a big deal in the law. Whatever the reason, the husband had discovered it and has made their relationship unable to continue, so there were a few options that a man could take before the law, a few courses of action that he might pursue. Number one, he could kill his wife. For her unwillingness, that doesn't sound very fair, does it? He could also keep her as his wife, treat her as his slave and go marry another wife. That doesn't sound fair, either. He could cast her out with nothing. And unfortunately, all three of these were common. Spousal abuse was common. Abandoning her was common, keeping her as your wife, but really treating her as a slave was common. God's trying to put a stop to this. So the second feature that God introduces is the requirement of a bill of divorce settlement. This would need to be obtained from the city magistrates.

Speaker 3: The husband would need to go to the city gates to try and prove the unclean ness of his wife. This would require two other witnesses. It would have to establish

Speaker 1: the fact that she is unclean. A magistrate within Grant or deny the bill, a divorced man after sufficient evidence or testimony had been produced.

Speaker 3: This bill of divorce meant would then be given to the

Speaker 1: wife in this. This feature accomplishes a couple of things. It takes away the husband's ability to divorce his wife for frivolous reasons and also makes it so that he cannot cast her out without warning. There is a process that has to take place. If the divorce was approved, the bill would be given to the wife for her protection. You see on the bill, it would be detailed why she was being divorced. If there was no detail as to why, what would people assume? We'll just ask yourself, what do you assume when somebody gets divorced, somebody must have cheated on somebody. Is that not what we assume? The bill of divorce protects

Speaker 3: her, because what was the punishment for cheating death?

Speaker 1: There's no no, no no. I didn't cheat on my husband. You protected her from being accused as an adulterer. But check this. It also freed her to remarry. Right, that's what it says.

Speaker 3: She can then go out and find another husband. Remember?

Speaker 1: If you would the blatant truth. That we are all unclean. Do I need a card? Labeling me as unclean. To prove to you that I am an unclean person now, you know it. Why? Because you're unclean, too. That goes back to the whole issue in the Beatitudes that we talked about once I understand my sinfulness and how sin affects me and how susceptible I am to sin myself. Well, then I'm much more merciful to those others who are also dealing with sin. The unclean this discovered by the husband may have been passed. It may have been something to which he could have shown grace, too. But if you're reading this and you only focus on the fact that we see the husband appealing for divorce, then you are missing the point. God gave this command in order to protect the women of Israel and to provide them an opportunity to remarry. And so when we look at the law to summarize, the law allowed divorce on the grounds of an unclean this that was less than adultery. Protected women and then allowed them to get remarried. Now, let's move forward to Jesus this time and compare what we just looked at in Deuteronomy with what was taking place in Jesus's day. I want to turn back to Matthew, but I want you to go a little bit forward to Matthew, 19. Matthew, 19 versus number three, is where we get a glimpse into the Pharisees doctrine of marriage. That's Chapter 19, verse number three, the Bible says this, the Pharisees also came under him, tempting him and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? What's next, your words? For every cause. All right. Here's our first clue that something's off. The law said you can put away your wife if there was an established case of unclean this, what the Pharisees were teaching during this time

Speaker 3: was that you could put away your wife for every clock cause anything. She burned the cookies. Divorce. She undercooked the chicken divorce. The the floor is dusty. Straight to divorce. There's little differences between you, Virginia's all of that's really what they're saying. I mean, you know, they're tempting him, as I say, that's

Speaker 1: what they actually believe. No, it is what they actually believed. How many have you heard of Josephus? OK. He didn't play guitar. He was a Jewish historian. I never knew this about Josephus, but you realize Josephus and his wife that he married when he was young. They lived together for a very long time. She gave him three children, raised those children. And when she got older, Josephus, who we all quote to make us sound like we actually know we're talking about, left his wife. Why? You know, use for her anymore. You gave me kids. You worked hard to be my wife. I'm done with you. She did not do anything to deserve that. But the prevailing mentality of the day was if you didn't like your wife, you got rid of her. So that's what he did. Not such a good guy anymore. And if I quote him any more, in fact, we might need to have a Josephus Josephus book burning. That's how we do things these days, right? Somebody does something you don't like it.

Unidentified: OK. Cancel them.

Speaker 1: They I can't imagine the way his wife for every cause and then drop down a version or seven. They say under him, here's the real thrust of what they thought Moses was, and why

Speaker 3: did Moses then command

Speaker 1: to give a writing of divorce meant so well, that sounds right. Okay, but finish it.

Speaker 3: He commanded to give it right in divorce and to put her away

Speaker 1: to put her away win. Well, for every cause. See what the Pharisees were teaching was not only did God

Speaker 3: allow for divorce, but God actually commanded divorce if

Speaker 1: you found a reason. Whatever the reason, once. This is not the teaching of the law of Moses, it's not the teaching of the Law of God.

Speaker 3: The only thing that the Pharisees got

Speaker 1: right in this situation was the fact that a female

Speaker 3: divorcee must be given a bill enforcement.

Speaker 1: They got that one thing right, and that was it. Pharisees were teaching their divorce was justified for any cause, so long as the document provided to the wife met their standards. Once again, we see that the Pharisees had stripped the law of its intended force. Thou shalt not kill or it just means don't murder, thou shalt not commit adultery. It's just talking about the act. Interestingly enough, the Pharisees had such strict rules about the document. They even went so far as to detail how many characters

Speaker 3: could be included

Speaker 1: on the document and how many lines it had to be. Means there's 12 had to be exactly 12 lines long. Pharisees were teaching that just divorce was justified so long as the document was right now. Go back to Matthew Chapter five, and you don't see anywhere else as be where we'll stay for the rest of time. This might be a trivial thing for you to to have pointed out to you in Matthew five 21, the verse starts with these words you've heard it, heard that it was said by them of old time. Advertisement 27. Almost the same thing you have heard that it was said by them of old time. But then when you drop down a version of thirty one where we read just a moment ago, the Bible says that Jesus said it has been said. What is missing? The old time. Could it be that this was a unique offering of the current generation of Jewish leaders? Could it be that this was a contemporary issue, a contemporary

Speaker 3: belief that was

Speaker 1: spreading throughout the Jewish community, not the way they'd always done things, but with this new generation? You've got these leaders who are saying. You can divorce for whatever reason you want. Don't we have like generational issues? You know, each generation seems to have certain characteristics that that that stereotypically expands to all reaches of that generation. It's possible that that's what Jesus is dealing with here. The problem, though, is apparent in that the Pharisees are contributing to the low view of marriage, making it easier and more acceptable to get divorced.

Unidentified: OK. Hurry. Lastly.

Speaker 1: How does Jesus view divorce? Because as his disciples or as his would be disciples, this is really what we should care the most about. How does Jesus view divorce? A disciple of Jesus has to be able to accept Jesus as doctrine. Even even when it conflicts with man or society's beliefs. We try to say, and I messed it up, a disciple of Jesus has to be able to accept Jesus doctrine,

Speaker 3: even

Speaker 1: if it conflicts with society's doctrine. When it comes to divorce, this can be seen pretty clearly there is a deviation between what society says and what Jesus says. Given what we know about the Pharisees teaching on divorce, what do you think the chances are that there may have been in Jesus, his audience? As many people touched by divorce as perhaps there are in our audience.

Speaker 3: If you've got if you've got Jewish leaders that are teaching the spiritual

Speaker 1: leaders of the day, teaching that you can

Speaker 3: get divorced for any reason and it's easy and acceptable knowing man's nature and the unclean nature that we all share, the the sinfulness that we all have in common. And someone says, Hey, you can get married and divorced and married and divorced, you can have as many partners as you want. Don't you think it's possible

Speaker 1: that in Jesus audience, there are a lot of people that have been touched by divorce? There's probably a lot of single moms that are here listening to Jesus speak, whose husband abandoned them for a younger wife.

Speaker 3: There's probably a lot of women that are there who were victims of abuse and had to leave for their own safety and are no longer married. I think Jesus is having to deal with a group of people not too dissimilar from a group of people in twenty twenty two. They've all been touched by it. They, of all felt the pain and the sting of trying to take two people who the Bible says were made one flesh and tear them apart.

Speaker 1: But Jesus teaches on anyways. He says whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery. Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery. What should I want you to remember this? I mean, go back to verse number twenty seven, we realized Jesus teaching here is not solely focused on divorce. Jesus is also dealing with the conditions for remarriage after divorce.

Speaker 3: But the real push of this message is dealing with adultery. And he's got people in his audience who he says

Speaker 1: thou shalt not commit adultery and they're like, Well, I've never done that.

Speaker 3: And he says, yes, yes, but you also need to protect

Speaker 1: yourself from the lust of the eyes and lust of the heart. And there will be people who would say, I don't have that problem. And she says to a crowd full of people that have been touched by divorce, if you divorce your wife except for the cause of fornication and you cause her whoever marries her to commit adultery. See, Jesus is trying to pinpoint as many people as he can to help them see their sinfulness. You say, hold on, I want to know more about this for the cause of fornication. What is this escape clause that I always hear about? Well, I'm glad you asked. You'll notice he doesn't say, except for the cause of adultery. Zoe said not my level saving for the cause of what? Fornication. I've said this before. You'll not convince me otherwise. Fornication is an umbrella word. It's a general term. You see, Jesus doesn't command divorce in the case of fornication, because even when fornication is present, there's still room for forgiveness and healing. But when for fornication is present,

Speaker 3: it's not solely applying to what we would think of as adultery. It's much broader.

Speaker 1: It's a unique word from adultery. I'm really not going to get into it, because if adultery is just part of fornication, then you can probably figure out what the rest of the fornication applies to. So regarding remarriage, Jesus says that unless the divorce was precipitated by fornication, then the

Speaker 3: preceding marriage is.

Speaker 1: Will be seen as adulterous. Not by society.

Unidentified: But by God.

Speaker 1: Now, before you turn me off. Remember in verse number twenty seven, Jesus says. You've heard it had been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery. How many of Jesus's listeners heard him say that and thought, I am not an adulterer? Last week, he highlighted the adulterous nature of lust flies or lustful heart. And still, some said to themselves, I am not an adulterer.

Speaker 3: So now he says if you or your spouse were previously married and that marriage ended for the commonly accepted reasons for divorce, you just didn't match up, you just didn't get along.

Speaker 1: Then you are an adulterer. Now, some of those people who've been saying it doesn't apply to me, that doesn't apply to me had to say. Well, if that's true, that applies to me. Is it possible that some or perhaps many of them came to this point and had to admit, if that's the case, then I am guilty. I think there's a good possibility that this is the case. But why? Why is it so important for them to see this? What is Jesus accomplishing in their hearts? What was he on that day to those

Speaker 3: people and in his infinite wisdom thinking about us here today? What was he trying to accomplish? Was he trying to make you feel bad? Was he trying to somehow, you know, delegitimize your current marriage?

Speaker 1: Was he trying to weaken the marriages that were present then and today? No. No. I believe that if Jesus were here to speak to those that have been divorced and remarried today, he would never advocate another divorce. He's not trying to get you to say, Oh.

Speaker 5: Well.

Speaker 1: This applies to me. Maybe I need to get out of my marriage. No. Jesus would tell every person that has remarried to stay faithful to their current spouse. Stay faithful to your current spouse.

Speaker 3: Amen. That's an easy one. If you're married, stay married.

Speaker 1: The primary purpose for Jesus is words here. There he is, trying to focus every here of his words on their need for him.

Speaker 3: The Pharisees, whether they realized it or not, we're getting everyone to look at themselves and say, I don't need a savior. I need someone to liberate me from Rome, but I don't need a savior. I'm good. I'm keeping the Lord Jesus comes in and he says, No, you're not. Here's the fulfillment of the law. Here's the true meaning of the law. You need help. I want to give it to you. I am your help. I was really curious, I

Speaker 1: didn't write this down going off my notes. Was curious, how is this going to end? Yeah, we're thinking the same thing. Well, when is it going to end? Do you know what the last part of the sermon on the Mount is? It might take me two years to get there, so I'll tell you now you'll forget by then. It's the wise man built his house upon the rock. Foolish man built his house upon the sand. Jesus is trying to get them to see. That by following the Pharisees and their perversion

Speaker 3: of righteousness, their perversion of the law,

Speaker 1: they're building their house in the sand. But he is the rock. And if we will build our houses and I think it's very appropriate and appropriate, we're talking about marriages here. If we're going to build our house on something, we need to build it on the rock. Jesus Christ. Primary purpose for Jesus, his words is that he's

Speaker 3: trying to get them and us to look to him. He is trying to help us see our need for a savior. I am a murderer. I have killed. I have. I may not be married to a divorcee and I've never been divorced, but I struggle with lustful eyes and hearts. So I'm an adulterer. Is this making sense? Come on. And so there's a punishment for my sins, isn't there. I'm an adulterous murderer, liar, cheater, thief. I'm going to go to hell.

Speaker 1: Somebody has to save me.

Speaker 3: Jesus is tearing down every false idea that you might have,

Speaker 1: that you are righteous in your own sense.

Speaker 3: Do you need him?

Speaker 1: Goes back to the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed, are they which mourn? For they shall be comforted. You see, it doesn't matter whether you're an adulterer or whether you're a murderer, whether you're a homosexual, whether you are a cheat, the vile, profane person Jesus blood is sufficient to forgive you of all your sins. The point this morning in dealing with divorce. Is not to belittle the current marriages of our church. Or delegitimize them in any way. It is simply for us to see our own propensity to send. And our need for Jesus Christ. I don't know everyone's story here today. I know some. But I do know that we all need Jesus. I know the point that Jesus is trying to make is that we would turn our eyes to him. Jesus wants to be the hero, he wants to be the savior of your story. In order for him to fulfill that role, you have to understand that you need to be saved. It's not a process, it's a moment. It's a decision to give your sin to Jesus. To agree with him about your condition and say, Lord, I cannot be righteous on my own. I need your help. You know why Jesus is the only person that can do that for you. Because he died on the cross. He did what no one else could do for you. He lived a perfect, sinless life and then he died on the cross so that you could be made righteous in him. The Pharisees were making people believe that they were righteous when they weren't. That's why the Pharisees largely rejected Jesus. They didn't need him. Jesus is trying to help us see. Help them see that we do need him and he is here for us. Let's pray. Definitely, father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the good attention of your people and. But I hope that the message this morning has been taken. Well, and I've been understood, I've tried to be clear. But or I hope that your Holy Spirit will help any misunderstandings are unclear in this on my part. God, I just want everybody here that's listening to this message to be convinced of their need for you. Lord, help us to be. Smitten with our sin, the realization of. Of what we've committed against you, we've broken your law, we have transgressed your your principles and. What if someone doesn't help us, we're all going to die and go to hell? Well, thank you for sending your son, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for us to pay our our price, our penalty. So we could have forgiveness. So we could be made righteous and you. Lord, if there's somebody here that is unsafe today. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit work on their heart, they would be convinced of their need for forgiveness. Maybe they've been convinced that they're not that bad. They haven't ever committed any of the quote big sins. Lord, I ask that you would help them today. They would come to you and humility and repentance, ask you to save them. Or there are other spiritual decisions that need to be made today. We have talked about divorce, maybe there's someone here that needs to recommit their their dedication and their their promises that they made to you and to their spouse. Or I pray that today would be the day that they they do that. Lord, we love you so much, and we thank you for all that you do force be with us now, work in our hearts during this time of invitation. It's in Jesus name. I ask these things. Amen

‍